


if you find you're falling

by jilliancares



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (eventually) - Freeform, 30 Day OTP Challenge, Canon Compliant, Eventual Smut, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Family Reunions, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Humor, In chapter 2, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Post Season 6, Slow Burn, Space Road Trip, the angst is v minimal it's just like sometimes they get injured or something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 18:54:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 74,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15007214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jilliancares/pseuds/jilliancares
Summary: Team Voltron's on their way home! Thus follows a series of adventures as Keith and Lance realize their feelings for each other and fall in love, entirely prompted by a 30 day writing challenge.





	1. day 1: getting lost somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys!!! i'm doing a 30 day prompt challenge so if All Goes Well you'll see an update to this every day !! follow me on twitter for updates/complaints/jokes/relatable voltron content/validation at @jacecares <3
> 
> also! the title's taken from "falling on" by finger eleven -- thanks to my friend @allen2nella on twitter for helping me w/ that!!

“This is all your fault,” Keith grumbled, cutting a path through the vines before them with his sword. Lance made a face behind his back.

“I don’t think assigning blame is gonna fix our lions any faster,” Lance responded. Flying back to Earth without the assistance of the castle was a lot harder than he’d been expecting. There were all sorts of weird space things they kept encountering, and they kept having to find planets to land on in order to rest and get their lions to recharge. Not to mention the fact that whenever they ran into Galra scouts, they couldn’t just wormhole away. They had to escape them the old fashioned way.

This had happened to them recently, except there’d been a lot more Galra ships than usual and they’d been really pushing it, flying at max speed for as long as they had. Lance and Keith had ended up getting separated from the rest of the team for reasons that were definitely not Lance’s fault, and now they were here, on this seemingly-uninhabited jungle-like planet, their lions currently out of commission and their comms down.

Keith didn’t answer, probably thinking he was too good for Lance, or something. Everyone seemed to think that lately. His ideas were shot down before he even got to fully express them. No one ever sought out his company, and in return he never went looking for theirs. He was constantly being pushed aside, and maybe it was sad, but he was finally getting used to it. He knew what to expect, now.

Back when they’d still had the castle, before it’d been sent into the quintessence field and blown to bits, Lance had been really looking forward to Keith returning. In the back of his mind he’d had this thought that once Keith returned, things could go back to normal. He finally might not be so alone all the time, finally might be included and respected again.

Instead, Keith had come back two years older and stomped his hopes into the ground. There was no way he’d want to be around Lance anymore, now that he was all older and cooler. Pidge was endlessly fascinated by the fact that he’d experienced two years without them, and everyone else seemed to think it was pretty neat too, but Lance hated it. It just felt like an extra thing he was being excluded from, another thing to distance him from another teammate.

Despite having looked forward to Keith’s return for the entire year he’d been with the Blade, Lance hadn’t made an effort to talk to him at all. He’d just excluded himself before Keith could have the chance to do it himself.

Now, Lance watched Keith’s broad shoulders as he slashed more vines out of the way. His neck was glistening with sweat, visible only because his hair was pulled into a bun at the top of his head. He definitely hadn’t always been able to do that.

With a sigh, Lance activated his own bayard, figuring the least he could do was help.

Keith barely reacted at the familiar whirring sound of their bayards taking shape, but he stumbled at the slashing sound that followed as Lance swatted through the few vines Keith had missed, already a few steps ahead of Lance.

Suddenly, Keith spun around, his eyes widening as he took in the sword in Lance’s hand. “You have a _sword_?”

Lance blinked. He’d forgotten that this was news — it’d been a while since he’d first managed to summon the sword instead of either of his guns, and everyone else already knew about it.

“Oh, yeah,” Lance said, twisting it in his grip as he looked down at it, trying to remember how it’d felt to take it in the first time he’d seen it. _Badass_ , he remembered thinking. “I got it a while ago.”

Keith had stopped walking. In fact, he was back-tracking now, getting closer to Lance. He drew level with his sword, reaching out to run his fingers down it. “This is awesome,” he said reverently. “Are you good with it?”

Lance shrugged. “Pretty good.” Or at least, he figured he was. He’d killed plenty of Galra with it.

“We should spar sometime,” Keith said, looking up at him with a soft smile. The little hairs not quite long enough to stay securely in his bun were hanging in front of his face, and he shoved them out of the way as he looked at Lance.

“Okay!” Lance said, accidentally letting his excitement get the best of him. Because that sounded actually _fun_. And better yet, that sounded like spending time with _Keith_. “I mean, you’ve had two years of extra practice though, so you might be a _little_  better.”

Keith scoffed. “I’ve had way more than two years of extra practice,” he argued. “I’ve had a sword since the beginning of Voltron! And I’ve known how to use a knife since I was twelve —”

Lance interrupted him. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re the knife guy, I get it,” he said, but he was smiling as he pushed past Keith and started hacking through the vegetation. He turned to look at him over his shoulder. “Which is gonna make it way more embarrassing when I kick your ass.”

“Keep dreaming,” Keith said, but his eyes were alight with excitement, and he fell comfortably in step behind Lance, not arguing with him taking the lead. Lance had to look away, overwhelmed by Keith’s eyes, by his bright smile, by his _everything_.

It wasn’t fair. Keith had always looked good — like, Lance had noticed him back in the Garrison when he’d had a population greater than seven to admire, good — but the extra two years looked _great_  on him. As if Lance hadn’t already had enough trouble not staring at him.

Still, Lance had to put his unfortunate taste in men aside as they continued to hack through the forest, growing hungrier, thirstier, and much, much sweatier. They’d had to leave their lions back where they’d crashed, much too big to maneuver through the forest and too damaged to fly over it. They’d originally set out in the hope of finding civilization, but the further they got, the less it seemed like their devices were lying to them and the more it seemed like the planet really _was_  uninhabited.

“Maybe we should stop,” Lance suggested tentatively, after almost another hour of them hiking through the jungle. His shoulders tensed automatically, waiting for the, _We can’t stop now, Lance_  or the _Stop being lazy_ , but it didn’t come.

“Good idea,” Keith said. “We should probably start looking for water and shelter. At this point, it’s up to everyone else to find us.”

Slowly, Lance relaxed again. A realization began to set in — Keith had yet to knock down or belittle him. He really hadn’t been anything but kind, now that Lance thought about it.

In the end, it was too difficult to find any sort of running water, so they decided to create a shelter instead. Seeing as the gadgets built into their suits didn’t exactly scan for animal life, they ended up climbing a tree to avoid the risk of sleeping on the ground.

The trees were huge and thick which made for good, sturdy branches. The two of them made their way up a tree at random, occasionally having to assist each other in getting to the next branch, Lance lifting Keith up and Keith having to pull Lance up after him.

Eventually, they were high enough off the ground to feel safe from predators but low enough that the branches were still incredibly thick — much thicker than those on Earth. Keith settled on the branch directly to Lance’s right, sparing a sleepy smile for him before leaning back with a sigh. Lance watched as he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He no doubt felt just as thirsty as Lance did, but there was nothing they could do about it now.

Lance laid back on his own brach, looking up at the leafy canopy above him. At least it wasn’t too sunny, despite the humidity.

“Huh,” Lance said aloud.

“What?” Keith answered.

“This forest must get water somehow.”

“I’m sure it rains,” Keith said nonchalantly.

Lance sat up. “So then there’s water.”

“Yeah, in the ground.”

“ _And_  in the trees,” Lance said, growing more confident now in his realization. He crawled along the branch towards the trunk, stopping when he was nearly straddling it. “Hand me your knife.”

Keith didn’t answer right away, and Lance turned his head, finding Keith cradling his sword protectively. Lance just raised an eyebrow expectantly, and Keith sighed sadly, handing over his sword. Once in Lance’s hand, it transformed into a knife.

Lance wasn’t exactly a wilderness expert, but he and his family had used to camp out during the summers, and his older brother knew how to do all kinds of random things because of it, like build a fire without matches and siphon water from trees.

Lance chopped off a smaller branch extending from the one he was sitting on and started whittling away at it, cutting it in half and making a gouge down the middle.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked, scooting forward on his own branch. He peered over at Lance curiously.

“Making a spigot,” Lance said, his tongue poking between his teeth as he concentrated. He sharpened the end, knowing it would make it fit better in the tree later.

Lance could feel Keith staring at him. He didn’t look back, smiling as he could feel Keith becoming more impatient, still confused.

“What for?” he asked.

“I’m gonna siphon water from the tree.”

“You can do that?!”

“No need to sound so surprised, Mullet,” Lance said, and Keith just shook his head.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

In response, Lance reached forward and peeled the outer layer of bark off the tree, throwing it aside and letting it tumble to the ground. He then used Keith’s knife to begin gouging a hole in the tree, twisting it back and forth as he shoved it deeper into the bark. He didn’t say anything as Keith continued to watch in fascination.

When he had finally dug the hole deep enough, apparent by the drips of water seeping out around the knife, he pulled it out and shoved the spigot in in its stead. He whipped off his helmet then and shoved it under the slow but steady stream. Keith, beside him, gasped.

“Holy shit, Lance!” he said.

“I know, right? I should just live in the wilderness.”

“No, you forgot to scan the air for breathability before taking off your helmet, idiot.”

Lance blinked. “Oops,” he said.

“You’re lucky there’s oxygen.”

“ _You’re_  lucky I’m a genius outdoorsman.”

Keith laughed, dropping the subject easily enough. Lance steadied his (very) slowly filling helmet between his knees and leaned back on his hands.

“You wanna get us some vines to tie this up with? Otherwise I’m gonna be sitting here for a while.”

“Sounds good,” Keith said, standing up carefully on his branch. And, as the age-old saying went, while Lance hated to see him go, he loved to watch him leave.

—

They were rescued in the middle of the night.

It’d been nearly a week since they’d first crash-landed — long enough for them to wonder how difficult it would be to find them and if their isolation might be longer than they’d originally assumed.

Their armor was scattered on the branches surrounding them, the both of them having undressed to their under-suits that very first night. Now, they laid on hammocks beside each other, hung between the two branches they’d originally staked their claims in. The familiar and consistent sound of water dripping into their helmets, now coming from two different trees, was background noise to their conversation.

“So… what was it like?” Lance asked. They’d been talking for hours. Like, _hours_. The past week they’d talked so much that Lance was finding it hard to believe they’d once bickered more than they’d had actual conversations. He also couldn’t believe that he’d expected Keith to fit right in with everyone else, to make Lance feel as little as they sometimes did. Instead, Lance had realized that the companionship he’d longed for when he’d laid in bed at night and wished for Keith to come home was exactly what he was getting now.

They’d talked to the point where silences between them didn’t even feel awkward anymore. They could enjoy it comfortably and break it easily — it was exactly the kind of friendship Lance was used to. Once upon a time, he and Hunk had been like that. And Pidge, too. Lance still wasn’t quite sure what had changed.

Tonight, they’d been talking about the things that’d happened in each other’s absence. Not the big things they already knew about, like the war and the battles they’d been in, but the little things. Lance had told Keith about how much he’d trained with his sword, about how he’d beaten Killbot Phantasm (and how he’d beaten it again, playing with only one hand, and again, with only his feet). For some reason, instead of being proud of Lance, Keith had frowned a little, had asked what Pidge and Hunk had been up to. Lance had shrugged, glossing over his answer and skipping the part where he was generally left out nowadays.

In exchange, Keith told him all about the Blade of Marmora, the weird traditions they all had and the creepy room Keith had been assigned to, which Keith swore up and down was haunted by an Actual Ghost. Silence had fallen between them, the next direction of the conversation obvious, and so Lance had asked it. _What was it like?_  “The space-whale journey thing,” he then clarified.

Lance watched as Keith readjusted, his feet crossing and his hammock swinging a little bit beside Lance’s.

“Lonely,” Keith finally admitted. “And… weird. I mean, I had my — Krolia. And Cosmo. But it’s really not the same as being with the team, or anything. And there were these weird time-flash things. I saw a lot of my past. And future.”

“You saw the future?” Lance asked, awed.

“Parts of it. I saw myself fighting with Shiro, which makes sense now. And other things I couldn’t really make sense of. I saw myself flying the the black lion, which is maybe why it finally felt right when I came back.”

Lance fell silent, deep in his thoughts, his mind struggling to attempt to process and relate to exactly what Keith had been through. Unable to do so, he settled on responding with something completely different instead. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too,” Keith said softly.

And then the two of them drifted off to sleep. Lance was curled up in his own hammock, facing Keith’s, wondering what it would be like if they were in the same hammock, if he could feel Keith’s skin against his own. And then he shoved those thoughts out of his mind and told himself to just appreciate the fact that Keith was finally back, that they were friends again. And then he fell asleep.

Hours later, three giant robot lions would descent from the sky, two blips on their radars guiding them. There would be a loud sound as the lions landed, and it would startle Lance from his sleep, making him yell and jolt upright, which would be too much motion for his little hammock, making it twist and hang him upside down, still trapped in its confines.

But for now, they both slept peacefully. Lance’s hand was flung over the edge of his hammock, and so was Keith’s, beside him. They were too far apart for their hands to actually touch, but every once in a while, when the wind blew right, their fingers would brush, each party unaware.


	2. day two: pet names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance end up fake dating for the day ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

After getting reunited with the team, Allura was more strict than ever about their (as Lance called it) “Space Road Trip”.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Keith had said, the first time Lance had called it that. “There aren’t even any roads out here.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Lance had said importantly. “It’s the _atmosphere_  that makes it a road trip.”

Now, seeing as the two of them had been stranded for a week, Allura was overly-paranoid about something like that happening again. She insisted they find a planet to rest on every night, despite the fact that their lions were pretty sufficient on autopilot. They were progressing a lot slower now, Keith was sure, but he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed actually getting to sleep in a horizontal position every night.

“ _We have a planet coming up in about thirty doboshes_ ,” Allura announced over the comms.

“ _Are they friendly_?” Lance asked.

 _“Can’t be sure,”_ Allura sighed. _“If we still had the castle, I could see if there was any information on them in the database, but...”_

 _“Right,”_ Lance said.

Thirty dobashes passed quickly, and soon enough they were slowing down as they approached the planet. Coran had a vast knowledge of a variety of the planets in this area of the universe, but even that wasn’t extensive enough to recognize each and every planet and whether they were loyal to the Galra or not.

“Let’s take it easy, team,” Keith said, falling into leader-mode. That’s what Lance had called it, back on that uninhabited planet. Spending that much time with Lance definitely hadn’t been good for Keith’s heart. Crushing on his teammate was hard enough when he wasn’t spending every waking moment with him, when he wasn’t getting his full attention, when he wasn’t privy to all the funny anecdotes that came out of his mouth with inexplicable ease. Keith still couldn’t wrap his head around the way Lance could control a room with his words and stories alone, making complete strangers laugh and like him.

The five lions flew carefully towards the planet, circling through the sky slowly. When they weren’t immediately shot at, they deemed it safe and descended towards the ground.

It soon became clear that they were close to a populated area, and from Keith’s lion he could already see plumes of dust rising in the distance, tailing the speeders headed their way. The citizens of this planet were likely on their way to them right now to either question their arrival or greet the famous Paladins of Voltron; the coalition shows had no doubt helped with Voltron’s exposure. Which reminded Keith — Lance had promised to show him videos of their performances back on that planet. Keith had never gotten to see them in his time in the Blade of Marmora.

“Looks like we’ve got company,” Shiro said, his hand falling on Keith’s shoulder. He’d been riding in Black with Keith, as had Krolia. And Cosmo. Now, they were standing before the lions in the sandy desert they found themselves in.

“Hope they’re friendly,” Lance chimed in, jogging down Red’s ramp and coming to a stop beside Krolia. She glanced at Lance, who beamed at her. Lance smiled at everyone he made eye contact with.

But then Krolia looked away from Lance, to Keith, this horribly knowing look in her eyes. Keith flushed. She knew more than she should know, thanks to their time on the space whale.

“I’m sure they’re friendly,” Coran added. Everyone else had exited their lions and joined the circle they’d unofficially formed. “Most who aren’t shoot first and ask questions later.”

And so they waited. It wasn’t long before the speeders reached them, kicking up dust all in the air as they came to a stop. Two aliens got out of each of the three speeders, tall and scaly and with long tails that dragged on the ground.

“Do mine eyes deceive me?” the closest alien said, their eyes flicking between all of them. “Could this be the Paladins of Voltron. Er, and friends?”

“It is,” Keith spoke up, stepping forward. “We’re currently on a journey to a distant planet and are seeking a place to rest for the night. We’d be grateful if your planet could serve as this place.” After speaking, Keith’s eyes flicked towards Allura, who nodded encouragingly. She’d always been good at this whole political, polite way of speaking, and Keith finally felt like he was starting to get the hang of it.

“It would be our honor,” the alien before them said. “However, it is not up to us. Queen Besda will want to see you first. Although, I should warn you, she is… peculiar.”

Keith’s eyes widened slightly. It wasn’t often that people spoke so openly about their Queen.

“What do you mean?” Keith asked.

“She is very traditional,” the alien explained further. “She’s only recently became the successor of our previous ruler, and already she has reinstated many old laws. Our civilization is one that worships romantic relationships, and in our history outsiders weren’t allowed in unless they had a relationship that could impress the Queen. I fear she may bar your entrance without one.”

Keith felt his jaw clench automatically. It was something he did a lot, to the point where he even ground his teeth in his sleep, often waking up with head aches. If they couldn’t stay here tonight, then it’d probably be several more hours of travel before they located another planet they could stay on.

“Well, that’s fine!” Lance said suddenly, and Keith stumbled as an arm was flung around his shoulders. “We’ve got a relationship that’ll knock the socks off your Queen.”

“You do?” said the alien, looking relieved. And, despite not having feet that socks could fit on, they didn’t question the latter half of Lance’s statement.

“Yep!” said Lance. “Tell ‘em, Keith.”

Keith blinked. Floundered. His eyes flicked to Lance, silently demanding answers, and Lance’s eyes widened, like _Come on, man!_  He jerked his head towards Allura, and Keith followed his gaze, but Allura didn’t seem to be trying to tell him anything easier. She was just glaring at Lance angrily, probably already planning the speech she would give him for daring to lie to the people they were trying to please.

With no further hints forthcoming, Allura not paying attention to Lance and Lance still jerking his head towards her incomprehensibly, Keith cleared his throat. “Yes,” he said. “Um, the relationship between… myself…” Lance was nodding his head encouragingly. Keith felt his cheeks go pink. “And the red paladin will… knock your Queen’s socks off.”

Keith glanced at Lance, waiting for approval, but he’d stopped nodding. He was looking at Keith with wide eyes, surprise written over every inch of his face. Keith glared at him, needing him to play along with the stupid plan that’d been _his_  idea in the first place, and Lance snapped out of it.

He laughed loudly, pulling Keith closer by the arm already around his shoulders, which really wasn’t working all that well for Keith. He was taller than Lance now, and the movement was tugging him down. “That’s right! We’re just the cutest, aren’t we, Shnookems?”

Keith went red. The aliens were all staring between him and Lance with interest and delight. Keith coughed. “Yes,” he said. “That’s right.”

Lance laughed again. “Isn’t he just so modest?” he said, leaning towards the aliens conspiratorially, who laughed along with him. Lance then turned his head and pressed a wet, smacking kiss against Keith’s cheek, who felt his insides curling into one giant ball.

After that, the aliens seemed much less stressed out about Voltron’s arrival, and they happily escorted them to the city in their speeders to meet with their Queen. Keith, Lance, and Allura (and Cosmo) ended up squeezing into one speeder, everyone else splitting into the others. There was a glass barrier between their alien drivers and the three of them, and the second they started driving towards the city, Lance turned to Keith with comically wide eyes.

“Dude!” he hissed.

“What?!”

Lance made a weird noise in his throat, before bursting out with, “Allura!” He gestured at her. “You were supposed to be dating Allura!”

Keith’s mouth dropped open. Because of _course_  that was what Lance had been trying to tell him to do. Feeling stupid and embarrassed now, he said, “You didn’t make that obvious!” Of course, it probably seemed obvious to anyone who wasn’t so gay they couldn’t even comprehend the idea of pretending to be in love with a girl, but it was too late now. Keith was an idiot.

“It was _already_  obvious,” Lance said. “The black paladin and the princess? That already sounds like an epic romance. How the hell are _we_  supposed to impress the Queen?”

“I don’t know!” Keith said, frantic now, because Lance was right. And Keith was a horrible actor. They were going to be chased off the planet within the hour. “I was panicking! And you weren’t helping —”

“Please,” Allura said, interrupting Keith. “It’s going to be fine. Though I definitely don’t commend lying within the first ten dobashes of meeting someone —” she said pointedly, looking at Lance “— I believe in you two. I’m sure you can make your relationship convincing enough to impress the Queen.”

With that, the three of them fell into an anxious silence for the rest of the drive to the city. Or at least, it was an anxious silence for Keith. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was for Lance and Allura.

Cosmo, sensing Keith’s anxiety, plopped his head in his lap, letting Keith burying his hands in his soft fur and tug at his ears. Lance, sitting next to Keith, reached over and pet Cosmo too. He was obsessed with him, always petting him when he walked by and talking to him in this weird baby voice. Keith didn’t mind, though, because Cosmo seemed to like him too.

By the time they got to the docking station, the other two speeders had already arrived, and the three of them joined everyone else where they were standing waiting for them. Keith’s shoulders practically refused to leave the place directly below his ears, his entire body stiff.

Lance, noticing some of their alien companions watching them, reached out to grab Keith’s hand. Apparently satisfied, the aliens turned around and began leading the way into the palace.

“I can’t do this,” Keith muttered under his breath, more for himself than for Lance. But of course Lance heard, and of course Lance squeezed his hand, knocking their shoulders together.

“Yes you can,” he assured him. “It’ll be fine.”

Keith shook his head. “I have no idea how to do this,” he said. And then, feeling his face grow hot, he admitted: “I’ve never been in a relationship before.”

Lance’s head whipped towards his so fast. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” Keith grunted.

Lance, perhaps sensing Keith’s embarrassment and deciding to actually not be a dick about it, looked forward again. He squeezed Keith’s hand a second time, and said, “Just follow my lead. We’ll be fine.”

The palace was huge, and by the time they arrived, the Queen had already been informed of the situation. They were led directly to a dining room, the table laden with rich food and drink and the Queen seated at the head of the table, wearing a golden headdress and draped in colorful, silky fabrics.

“Welcome,” she said, her hands folded on the table before her. “I have your bedrooms prepared for you for the night, given you prove your love is true. Which of your party are the newly-weds?”

Newly-weds. How had the news of their relationship progressed to newly-weds over the span of however many minutes it’d taken for them to arrive here?

“Newly-weds!” Lance said, stepping forward and holding up his and Keith’s intertwined hands. “That would be us, Your Highness.”

The Queen smiled, leaning forward and smiling at the two of them. “Congratulations on your union,” she said, gesturing to the open seats at the table. “Please, all of you: sit. Eat.”

“Thank you,” they chorused, finding their seats and piling food onto their plates. Keith felt horribly tense, sure that his every move was being analyzed. Did he look in love enough? Could she tell that they were faking their relationship?

“You want some of this, babe?” Lance said, and Keith’s head jerked towards his, his face flushing pink. Lance was holding up a plate of something which looked vaguely like fruit salad, looking at Keith expectantly.

“Yes please,” Keith said, wondering if and where he should tack a pet name into that sentence. Did he seem less in love with Lance because of his lack of one? And given he had the chance, which one should he use? Babe was out now — Lance had already used that one, and there were so many others. Almost too many to choose from. Keith was sure any name other than ‘Lance’ would sound weird coming out of his mouth, enough that it would give away their ruse immediately.

Lance scooped the food onto Keith’s place. “Here you are, sweetheart,” he said. Fuck! He was totally beating Keith at this pet names thing, and there went another one Keith couldn’t use now, the bastard.

“Thanks,” Keith said, smiling, though he was trying to silently and telepathically tell Lance to stop beating him at the whole relationship thing.

Dinner passed much too slowly, for Keith. He felt like a ball of tension, and the way Lance kept touching him wasn’t helping at all, linking his hand with Keith’s as he told an engaging story to the Queen or dropping a hand on Keith’s knee so casually it felt like it should be familiar.

By the time they’d all finished eating, even Keith was almost convinced they were dating, and his fingers clenched around Lance’s anxiously under the table as they waited for the verdict from the Queen. She smiled serenely.

“Your love for each other is obvious,” she said. “I would be happy to be your host for the night. Please, retire to your rooms for now. Look forward to a breakfast feast in the morning.”

“Thank you so much,” Keith said, feeling his nerves drain out of him. The tension eased from his shoulders as they all stood, servants leading them to their rooms. Cosmo trotted alongside Keith, occasionally nosing up at Keith’s hand, trying to get Keith to pet him.

“Here you are,” one of the servants said, stopping before a large set of double doors. “The newly-wed’s room.”

Behind Keith, Pidge snorted, and Keith ignored the heat invading his cheeks. Lance thanked the alien and pushed the door open for Keith, the rest of their teammates disappearing down the hall.

Keith stood still in the entrance to the room, the door shutting behind them. He and Lance both stared at the single bed before them.

“Guess I should get my cuddle on,” Lance joked, and Keith snorted. The tension between them broke and so they went and investigated the bathroom together, poking at all the weird soaps and lotions and testing them on each other.

When they finally changed into the silken pajamas provided for them, they climbed into bed, neither of them acknowledging the implications of it all. The implications of their entire day.

“G’night,” Lance said, breaking the weird silence between them, and Keith laughed, turning his head on his pillow to look at Lance. He had to close his eyes, because Lance looked so beautiful in the light of this planet’s moon, filtering in through the skylights above their bed.

“Night, Lance,” Keith said. There was a bark, and Cosmo teleported onto the bed between them, wiggling up the bed and panting happily. Lance was giggling, running his hand down his back.

“I fuckin’ love your space dog,” he said, sighing happily.

“Me too.” Keith turned onto his side and petted Cosmo as well. His hand bumped against Lance’s and stilled. Their fingers stayed barely touching, both sitting atop Cosmo’s back.

“Goodnight,” Lance said again.

Keith buried his smile into Cosmo’s fur. “Goodnight.”


	3. day three: patching each other up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance were less good at acting than they'd thought.

Lance was pretty assured of his acting skills, especially after the way he and Keith had managed to trick the Queen. He was also a pretty trusting guy in general, so when he was told that his relationship was lovely and was thus sent off to bed for a good night’s sleep, he believed his relationship was lovely and that he was being sent off to bed for a good night’s sleep. What he _didn’t_  believe was that he was going to be randomly attacked in the middle of the night, the Queen having somehow known his and Keith’s relationship was all an act and trying to murder them because of it.

He jolted awake when the door crashed open, guards thundering into the room with spears held aloft. He was wide awake in an instant, tumbling off the bed and towards the bag he and Keith had at least had the foresight to put their clothes in. Cosmo was up and growling in an instant, and Keith was awake too, shouting something at Lance that he couldn’t quite understand.

Lance yanked his bayard out of the bag and activated it just in time to block what looked like a killing stab by one of the guards.

“We have to get out of here!” Keith shouted, his Blade of Marmora sword swinging through the air, parrying the three guards attacking him at once.

“No shit!” Lance bit back. Cosmo barked and teleported, landing atop a guard and sending them falling to the ground. Lance, with the bag now secured on his back, leapt across the bed in his pajamas and grabbed Keith’s hand, yanking him out of the room and slashing at the guards on the way.

Down the hall, doors were bursting open and their fellow teammates were escaping from their rooms, all fighting guards of their own.

“To the lions!” Keith commanded in his leader-voice, his words ringing out loud enough down the hall to get everyone’s attention. Shouts of affirmation rung out behind them, and Keith led the charge out of the palace.

As Lance ran, he changed his bayard from the sword into his gun, taking out the guards ahead of them as they ran.

“Can’t believe they attacked us in our sleep,” Lance panted as they ran, glancing over his shoulder to make sure everyone else was still with them. “I mean, they could’ve just sent us away after dinner.”

“That would’ve been too easy,” Keith grunted. He reached out and yanked Lance backwards before he could run directly into a spear, too busy looking over his shoulder to notice it. Keith disarmed the guard and dragged Lance onward.

Once out of the palace, it will still quite a ways to their lions, which they needed speeders to get to. Thankfully, there was no one guarding the speeders, all the guards having been released into the building instead. Now, those of them that were left were pouring out after them, chasing them as they sprinted towards the speeders as fast as they could.

“Hunk,” Keith called over his shoulder. “Think you can hot-wire one of these speeders?”

“Yes!” Hunk gasped out behind them, and he sped up, falling into pace beside Lance. They reached the speeders first and piled in, Hunk hurrying to the front to do whatever engineering magic he was capable of while Lance ducked down at the entrance, gun aimed at the advancing guards as the rest of the team joined them.

“Any luck?” Keith called to Hunk, who had opened up some sort of panel up front and was playing with the wires inside. Lance had switched his gun to the sniper, his eye pressed against the eyepiece as he took down guard after guard, though there seemed to be two more for each one Lance disposed of.

“We need to hurry!” Lance shouted, getting less accurate with his aim as the guards drew closer and he grew more panicked.

“I’m doing my best!” Hunk called from up front. Lance had stopped watching to make sure his targets were going down, now just shooting and putting another enemy between his crosshairs before he could see the result. Hunk cursed up front, and Pidge shouted something high and desperate as the guards closed in on them. Lance changed his bayard to the sword at the last moment, slicing and stabbing at the guards trying to shove their way into the speeder. There was only enough room for one person in the doorway, so Lance took on the brunt of the fight, keeping the guards from entering as the rest of his team stood armed and anxious behind him.

Lance grunted at the effort, his arm tiring at the never-ending battle. Behind him, his friends were shouting encouragement, cheering him on, and it infused him with more energy.

He stumbled, however, when a spear shoved its way through the legs of two guards, slashing at his ankles and tripping him up. He made the mistake of looking down to find the source of the pain now throbbing through his lower calf, and that’s when two guards pushed forward at once.

In an instant, blinding heat seared across his face, accompanied by the same feeling across his chest. Lance cried out, blinking blood out of his eyes, and an angered yell exploded from behind him. For a millisecond, a warm grip found itself around Lance’s upper arm, and then he was being yanked back, shoved into someone’s arms, and Keith was pushing the enemies out of the doorway, his sword flying at the speed of light, blood spraying into the air because of it.

“Uhn,” Lance let out, his head falling back against someone — Allura? — ’s shoulder. His eye stung, hot with blood dripping into it, and Lance realized his hand was pressed against his chest, unconsciously trying to keep his blood inside him. His silken, white pajamas were ruined, Lance realized ruefully. If he’d been wearing his armor, he wouldn’t have gotten injured at all.

“Sit down, Lance, sit down,” Allura encouraged, maneuvering Lance towards the back of the speeder. He fell into a seat gracelessly, his chest and face throbbing at the movement. Allura looked pale with worry, and there was blood on her hands.

“Got it!” Hunk yelled from up front, and the engine roared to life. Keith yanked his sword out of someone’s body and the speeder jerked away, Keith still hanging half-out the door and looking like an avenging angel, covered in blood and with a ferocious scowl on his face.

Everyone was talking, but Lance couldn’t seem to discern any of it. He thought he heard his name, and so he looked up, but everyone had these urgent expressions on his face, so he figured it was about something else.

Lance blinked, and when he opened his eyes, they were at their lions already, and Keith was squatting in front of him, saying something in a low voice that Lance still couldn’t understand. He nodded anyway, and then Keith was pulling Lance to his feet, wrapping an arm around his waist and tugging Lance’s arm over his shoulders.

“Someone grab the red lion,” Keith instructed, and then Lance was stumbling up the black lion’s ramp with Keith. His mom and Shiro rushed up behind them, and Keith said something lowly to Shiro, who nodded and dropped into the pilot’s seat.

Keith, meanwhile, helped Lance into one of the passenger seats, kneeling between his knees and looking up at him. “— ance? Lance? Can you hear me?”

Lance blinked, wincing as more blood found its way into his eye. He resolved to keep that eye closed, from now on, but thanked the sudden quiet of the black lion’s interior for his clear head. Without so much noise, he felt like he could concentrate. He realized somewhat distantly that he’d been injured, that he’d maybe lost a lot of blood, and that this was indeed not a good thing.

“You’re bleeding,” Lance said, when he found his tongue. Keith had a small cut on his chin, and there was blood all over the matching set of pajamas he’d been wearing. It was impossible to tell whether any of it was his.

“Shut up about me,” Keith demanded, and then he was drawing his sword and slicing Lance’s shirt open. Lance winced as the fabric was peeled away from his bloody skin, and he glanced down for barely a second before he looked back up again, feeling sick. His chest looked like a piece of raw meat.

“Krolia?” Keith said, sounding scared and alarmed and exactly how Lance felt.

“He’s going to be fine,” Krolia said sternly, coming to stand behind Keith. She was already holding the emergency first-aid kit they all had in their lions, and Keith snatched it from her hands, tearing it open and pulling out gauze. He got to his feet, unwinding the bandage and ripping it with his teeth, which, side note: hot. And maybe the blood loss was getting to him, because although Lance was _pretty_  sure he hadn’t said this out loud, both Keith and Krolia got a little wide-eyed right after Lance thought it, and even Shiro snorted from up front where he was flying Black.

Keith leaned over Lance as he started wrapping his chest up with gauze. It grew red quickly, but it seemed to be at a slower pace than when he’d been bleeding freely. Lance definitely needed a healing pod. Except… the Castle of Lions was gone. He’d need stitches or something, instead. For his face, too.

Speaking of, Keith moved onto that next, this time much more delicately. He cleaned it with some sort of spray that stung, apologizing to Lance softly when he winced. And then he was wrapping Lance’s face up in gauze, so that it covered the extent of the cut, going diagonally from above his eyebrow to his cheek.

By the end of it, Lance felt like a pirate, his left eye unable to see due to the gauze, but he felt much better because of it. The pain felt dulled, and he could no longer feel blood dripping down his face and chest. Keith looked a whole lot better, too, much less panicky about the whole thing.

“C’mere,” Lance said, gesturing Keith forward, who did so somewhat cautiously, looking confused. Lance peeled a band-aid open and placed it on his chin, rubbing the sides carefully so that it would stick in place. Afterwards, he smiled, resisting the urge to lean upward and press a kiss against it. “There,” he said proudly. “All better.”

Keith shook his head, looking disbelieving, and collapsed onto the chair next to Lance. He sank down in it, clearly feeling exhausted now that the adrenaline of it all was wearing out of his body, and Lance could definitely relate. He felt tired and sluggish, his body aching with its injuries. He ended up leaning his head against Keith’s shoulder, his eyes slipping shut automatically.

Lance grunted as Keith seemed to jolt, but before he could argue, Krolia was talking. “He’s fine,” she said. “It’s okay if he sleeps. We’ll find the nearest planet for a hospital, and then…”

Lance tuned her out as his breathing slowed, a low hum escaping him as Keith’s arm wound around his back and held him closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys are enjoying!!! also don't forget to follow me on [my twitter !!](http://www.twitter.com/jacecares) sometimes i run polls about what i want to do in the chapters! :D


	4. day four: hospital visits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finds out about when Lance died for those few minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> asdjfad you can really see my indignant, defensive lance stan side in this chapter and i'm not even sorry
> 
> ┏┓  
> ┃┃╱╲ in this  
> ┃╱╱╲╲ house  
> ╱╱╭╮╲╲ we  
> ▔▏┗┛▕▔ drink  
> ╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲  
> loving and appreciating  
> lance juice  
> ╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲  
> ▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔

Keith sighed loudly, not for the first time, as the minutes dragged by where he sat in the waiting room. It must’ve been at least a few hours, by now.

“He’s going to be fine,” Shiro said, seated directly beside Keith.

“You _know_  he’s going to be fine,” Krolia added from Keith’s other side, making him flush.

“That’s not true,” Keith argued, not for the first time. He still wasn’t convinced that the time flares had any truth to them — the ones of the future, anyway. If it was possible to make Keith relive his past and see glimpses of his future, then wasn’t it also possible that those glimpses could just as easily be alternate realities? Or just mere possibilities of the future? It just didn’t make sense for them to be set in stone.

Thankfully, Krolia didn’t press. Keith startled when two hands fell on his back, one on either side of him. Both Krolia and Shiro reassuring him. Both of whom, Keith might add, knew much more than they needed to.

“Princess Allura?” a nurse said, stepping into the center of the room and looking around for her. Allura stood up, as did the rest of them, all anxious for news of Lance.

“Yes?” Allura said, stepping forward anxiously.

“Lance is all patched up. He’s sleeping now, but you can come see him if you would like.”

The sigh of relief all of them shared was practically deafening. Shoulders slumped and tension melted out of their bodies as they realized Lance was going to be all right. Even though they’d been fairly sure of it themselves, considering how long Lance had been lucid for and the fact that they’d managed to bandage him up relatively quickly, there was nothing quite like knowing for sure that he was going to be okay.

Although, Keith couldn’t deny that he would probably feel a lot less stressed out if the injuries Lance had gotten didn’t exactly match the ones Keith had gotten glimpses of back on that space-whale. He could practically see the scenes and images he’d witnessed printed on the insides of his eyelids, despite however much he tried to ignore them.

_Brown hair, longer than Keith remembered it. Long enough on the top for it to be pulled into a messy bun, the stray hairs hanging in front of his face, though not enough to hide the evidence of some old battle decorating his skin, cutting through his eyebrow._

_“Have you seen my tie?” Lance asked, his voice echoing weirdly in this plane of existence. He opened the closet, peering inside. From his vantage point, Keith could see some of his own clothes in the closet as well._

_“You’d lose your head if it weren’t on your neck,” Keith’s own voice scoffed, and an older version of himself appeared out of the nothingness, scooting in front of the older Lance and leaning into the closet. He pulled back moments later holding a tie, a knowing look on his face. Without further comment, he reached forward and tied it around Lance’s neck with quick, easy movements before straightening it out and smiling softly at the man before him._

Keith shook his head, ridding his mind of the memory. Or… prophecy?

No, it couldn’t be. Lance didn’t like him like that. Sure, he’d mumbled something about Keith looking hot back in the black lion, but he’d been delirious with blood loss. Keith wasn’t even sure if he was into guys like that. And okay, maybe he’d played the part well back with Queen Besda, but that was exactly it. He’d only been pretending.

The fact that Keith had seen the future like  _that_  only made him more prone to disregard it. There was just no way he was going to end up getting exactly what he wanted. That Shiro vision might’ve come true, but that was just one of many, and Keith wasn’t going to let himself get his hopes up and feel stupid and disappointed later on because of it.

Only minutes later they were all stuffing themselves into Lance’s hospital room, surrounding him where he laid sleeping peacefully in the bed. His face was covered with gauze, similar to how Keith had done it but much neater and covered in much less blood. His chest rose and fell softly with his every breath, and it was with relief that Keith collapsed into the chair beside him.

“He’s going to hate that scar,” Hunk muttered sadly, looking at Lance. Keith found his gaze following Hunk’s, tracing over the bandage and trying to remember what it’d looked like in his lion. Fresh. Red. Deep, and jagged. Would it really be that big of a deal to Lance?

At first, Keith felt inclined to say no. Although he was biased, influenced by the very visions he was trying to forget. In each of those, Lance had hardly seemed to care about nor even notice the difference in his appearance. But then again, if Keith was so busy convincing himself these visions weren’t true, then there was also the very real possibility that Lance would be devastated over his new injuries, once that wouldn’t be healed flawlessly with the use of a cryopod.

It made sense, too. It’d been a long time since Keith had lived on the castle, since they’d had a normal routine and home, but he remembered Lance walking around wearing face masks at night, talking about all the good and healing properties of them whenever someone so much as gave him a second glance.

Keith’s heart sank at the thought of Lance feeling any less attractive because of some stupid scar. As if scars weren’t totally hot, besides.

Slowly, everyone took seats around Lance, despite there not being enough chairs. Pidge ended up sitting on the ground, and Allura just climbed up onto the foot of the bed, crossing her legs under herself comfortably. They all continued to converse quietly, now at ease in Lance’s presence, knowing he would be fine.

No one expected for him to wake up any time soon, the nurses having given them the room for the night and refused pay, insisting it was a thank you for Voltron’s service. They all fully expected to sleep in uncomfortable positions and wake up with cricks in their necks to the sound of Lance grumbling awake and asking what had happened. Instead, it was only an hour later when Lance let out a cough, and like a pack of hyper-attuned mother-hens, they all jumped to attention. On autopilot, Keith launched himself towards the nearest water bottle, and Allura was already standing, hitting the call button to summon their nurse back.

“Are you okay?” Hunk was saying, trying to edge past Allura and nearly knocking over some sort of monitor in the process.

“Does it hurt? Do you need more medicine?” Shiro was asking, leaning around Keith to try to get his voice heard.

“You’re crowding him!” Pidge shouted, looking anxious and angry at the back of the room. Coran was leaning out of the door, trying to wave down somebody in the hall, and Keith finally caught Lance’s eye, which had been roving around the room quickly, trying to take in everything that was happening at once.

He immediately stepped closer to Lance, pressing himself against the side of the bed and holding out the water he’d retrieved for him. “Here,” he said. “Drink.”

“Bossy,” Lance joked, except his voice was scratchy and he winced after smiling, the movement obviously having pulled at the stitches beneath his bandages.

No one else seemed to realize that Keith had managed to capture Lance’s attention and was actually talking to him, still too busy yelling over each other in an attempt to do whatever they thought Lance needed the most.

“You feeling okay?” Keith asked, after Lance had downed the whole bottle in a few sips. Keith took it from him and shoved it back behind him into what felt like Shiro’s chest, hoping his brother would somehow manage to refill it in the next few minutes.

“Peachy,” Lance assured him. His hand came up, then, feeling at the gauze covering his face. “My eye’s okay under here, right?” he asked uncertainly.

“Right,” Keith promised. “The bandage is just for the cut.”

Lance nodded. He looked around the room again. “What’s everyone doing in here?”

Keith blinked, taken aback. “What do you mean? We’re here because you were hurt. We’re here to make sure you’re okay.”

It seemed obvious. Wasn’t it obvious? This wasn’t any different from how they were whenever one of them was put in a healing pod. They practically spent shifts guarding it, all gathering at once when they knew it was due to open soon. Or at least… they’d used to. Had it changed, once Keith had gone to the Blade? Was Lance used to waking up alone? Used to shaking off his injuries and getting on with his day?

“Is that strange to you?” Keith asked, suddenly desperate for answers.

Lance shrugged, then hissed between his teeth, seemingly having forgotten about his second wound traversing his torso. Finally, he ended up saying, “I just didn’t think everyone would make such a big deal out of it. They weren’t like this when I died.”

Keith frowned. He tried to process Lance’s words, but they refused to make sense, refused to click together in his brain. Lance must’ve still been delirious, either from the blood loss or the drugs. “I’m sorry, what?” he said, trying to help Lance make sense of what he was trying to say. Had the team not been worried the last time he’d been injured?

Lance’s visible eye widened a little bit, as if realizing something, before his gaze darted to the other side of the room. He seemed to be watching Pidge and Hunk arguing, both of them waving their hands through the air as they fought about Lance’s wellbeing, still not realizing that he was awake and completely lucid. Or at least, almost completely lucid. There was still that little problem with him thinking he’d _died_.

“Um,” Lance said, still not looking at Keith. “It’s not like, a big deal. I mean, obviously, since no one was worried about it. But before you came back, we were fixing this radiation shield, and I got caught in the blast. I died.”

Lance sounded entirely too lucid. Too calm. Keith felt the blood draining out of his face, felt his knees wobble once, threatening to give out. Lance had _died_? Was that even possible? But then, of course it was possible — Shiro had been dead. Shiro had been dead for _years_ , just stuck in the astral plane. Is that where Lance had gone, after he’d died?

“Allura brought me back,” Lance continued nonchalantly. “But before that, I felt it. I was really gone, Keith.”

Shaking now, Keith let himself sit on the edge of Lance’s bed, his hand falling on Lance’s knee as he sat down.

“You… died?” he repeated, still trying to make himself comprehend it.

“Just for a minute,” Lance tried to joke, except it wasn’t funny. Keith felt rage bubbling up inside him, threatening to spill over and explode all over his teammates. Lance had said they hadn’t been worried about it, but _what_? What the fuck? How could they possibly not have been worried about it? How could they not have made a big deal out of it? How could they not have hugged the shit out of Lance, have cried into his shoulders and realized how much worse off they’d be without him, if Allura hadn’t managed to save him?

Fuck. Lance hadn’t even expected anyone to be worried about him today. What the shit?

All of it hit a strange chord in Keith, and he felt uneasy. It seemed to line up perfectly with the feeling he’d found himself sporting back on that planet he’d been on with Lance. Lance, who could probably talk himself into a coma. Lance, who’d talked about weapons and training and video games and fighting and hadn’t spared a single word for the rest of the team until he’d been prompted. Lance, who now that Keith thought about it, obviously wasn’t spending any time with anyone else, at least not when they weren’t all together. Lance, who must’ve been feeling all sorts of lonely, all kinds of unappreciated. Lance, who had fucking _died_  out here in space, likely thinking in those last moments that he’d never see his family again, never again see his home, and wasn’t even confronted with a slew of hugs and comfort afterwards. What the fuck.

Keith knew it probably wasn’t any one person’s fault. They were in a war, after all, and their attention was constantly being pulled towards the strategy, the battle front, the enemy. But they still needed to concentrate on their friends. Still needed to keep the bonds between them strong. That was the very first rule of Voltron.

Thinking about it, Keith wondered if some of the blame belonged on his shoulders as well. Before he’d left for the Blade of Marmora, he and Lance had been growing close. When Keith had been struggling with the weight of being the black paladin, Lance had been there for him, and Keith had realized that he could lean on Lance, that Lance could take his weight. They’d grown closer, and then Keith had left, so sure that he was doing the right thing for him.

Now, he wasn’t so sure.

Now, he was going to make sure he made it up to Lance. He was going to make sure _everyone_  made it up to Lance.

The anger that’d been building inside of him dissipated, however, when Lance’s hand patted his twice, the one that was still resting on his knee.

“Mind getting me another water?” he said, his lip quirking up on the side of his face that wasn’t bandaged.

“Of course,” Keith said, before he slid off the bed and said, “Guys — Lance is thirsty.” Like that, the chaos in the room reorganized itself. The door opened, revealing the nurse that’d finally been summoned, and Coran sent her off immediately to retrieve more water for Lance. Everyone else was falling over themselves in an attempt to talk to him, to ask him how he was, to tell him they were glad he was okay.

Suddenly, Keith was sure no one had been neglecting Lance on purpose. Maybe they’d had other matters on their minds. Maybe they’d been taking their anger out on him without realizing. It must’ve been too easy, when Lance was always the first to try to lighten the mood, to see the bright side of any situation. He’d probably acted as a scapegoat for everyone’s feelings and fears for far too long, and Keith was going to put an end to it.

As he thought this, standing stiffly at the back of the room, his arms crossed, Krolia dropped a hand onto his shoulder. “You believe it yet?” she asked. She didn’t specify what she was talking about. She didn’t have to.

“No,” Keith said bitterly, even as a small, horrible, hopeful part of him in the back of his mind frantically whispered, _yes_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah and follow me on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/jacecares) pls i'll lov u forever


	5. day five: scar worship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gets some help putting on his medical cream.

Lance huffed through his nose as he sat back in his lion’s seat, kicking his feet up on the dash and giving up on struggling out of his t-shirt. It was especially hard as of late. Attempting to put his hands above his head resulted in the stitches in his chest pulling against his skin, which meant that despite the fact that Lance was supposed to be rubbing this specialized medical cream onto his injuries each night, he usually forewent it.

Tonight, their lions were parked on a small moon. They weren’t up for taking their chances with another potentially hostile civilization when Lance was still on the mend, so they’d decided docking somewhere uninhabited was their best bet. Unfortunately, the atmosphere wasn’t breathable, meaning everyone was forced to chill in their own lions.

Feeling disheartened, Lance closed his eyes, ignoring the cream still sitting on his control panel, haunting him. It wouldn’t be too hard to rub it onto his face, at the very least, but for some reason the thought of dredging up the effort to actually do so felt exhausting. He couldn’t even change into his pajamas, couldn’t apply the cream to his chest, so what was the point?

Without his brain’s permission, and not for the first time, his fingers rose to touch the hot ridge cutting a path across his face. It still stung when he tried to smile, when he talked too fast or grew to expressive, and all that did was serve to remind him of its presence in the first place. When it wasn’t hurting, it itched, making him wish he could peel the stitches out of his skin and lay into the injury with gusto. At the very least, he was grateful that he didn’t have to wear the gauze anymore, that he could now use both of his eyes normally.

And he did. Use them, that is. Just not to look at himself. Whenever he happened to catch a glimpse of his face, he was quick to turn away, feeling dumb and pathetic for even being upset about something as stupid as vanity in the first place.

Lance let his fingers fall away from his face, landing on his chest and curling into his shirt. He was bound to get scars, seeing as he was fighting in a war. And he _did_  have them — just, small ones. The cryopods were pretty good at their jobs, after all. Usually there was just the barest traces of a mark left behind. Now, with Lance’s own body having to do all the work, he was sure he would be sporting shiny pink skin for the next long while.

Stupid. Vain. He should just man up about it.

“ _Lance_?”

Lance jerked, his feet thrashing against the control panel and knocking the bottle of cream to the floor as the familiar voice flooded his cockpit. He cleared his throat and slammed his hand against the comms button.

“Yeah?”

“Shiro and Krolia have taken over the floor of Black’s cockpit to play some weird card game. I didn’t even know there were cards in here. Anyway, I guess what I’m asking is, can I come join you?”

Lance blinked. Cleared his throat again. His finger was still pressing down on the communications link. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, of course. You coming now, or?”

“Yeah,” said Keith. “I’ll be right there.”

The link disconnected and Lance sat back in his seat, his hands falling onto his knees. He felt oddly… light. He couldn’t help thinking it was nice, how Keith seemed to seek out his company these days. Lance could definitely remember being the one who’d used to do that, but nowadays he usually figured he’d be better off alone. It was nice to be wanted.

Red murmured a kind of warning in Lance’s head, and then she was lowering to the ground, her maw opening up and the ramp descending. Keith patted her control panel happily as he entered, the ramp closing back up after him.

Immediately, Keith took off his helmet, having had to put on his paladin armor in order to leave his lion. He tossed it towards the back of the cockpit where Lance’s armor was currently piled, before crossing towards him. His foot knocked against the cream Lance was supposed to be putting on as he walked, and he looked down as it skidded across the floor and lodged itself under Lance’s seat.

“Is that the healing cream?” he asked, ducking down to grab it from under Lance’s chair.

“Yep,” Lance said. “Must’ve fallen to the floor; I just finished putting it on.”

Keith squinted at him, his gaze shifting between him and the container. “You _just_  put this on?”

“Uh-huh,” Lance lied.

“When the nurse put this on you, your face was all shiny,” Keith said skeptically.

Lance, floundering, said, “Oh yeah, well. I haven’t put it on my face yet. I do that just before I go to sleep.”

“But you have put it on your chest?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely.”

“And that’s why you’re only wearing your shirt on one arm?”

Shit. Lance glanced down, noticing that his shirt was indeed only technically on half of his body. He’d given up halfway through taking it off, his chest aching and his breathing labored just from the effort of getting one arm out of it.

“Yep,” he said now, because he’d already lied this much. There was nowhere to go but deeper.

Keith just sighed. “Stand up,” he said. “Let me help you.”

Lance did so, getting to his feet slowly. Keith came to stand in front of him and carefully maneuvered his t-shirt the rest of the way off his head, and then down his other arm. Lance glanced down at his chest before looking away, staring hard past Keith’s shoulder instead.

His skin looked red and angry, decorated with black stitches and the of scab beginning to form around them. It looked disgusting, honestly, and Lance almost couldn’t believe Keith was looking at it voluntarily. His heart sank as he realized his face probably looked the same, so it didn’t even matter. Everyone was already seeing it anyway.

“You want me to do it?” Keith said, and Lance shrugged, uncaring. It wasn’t like the cream could actually _do_  anything for him in the end.

Keith took Lance’s shrug as permission, though, and he said, “Tell me if it hurts,” as he dipped his fingers into the white cream. Then he began spreading it across Lance’s injury, the lotion cool and his fingers light and careful as they massaged it into his skin, delicately enough that it didn’t even hurt.

Lance found himself watching Keith as he did it, his tongue poking between his teeth in concentration. Satisfied with his work, Keith dipped his fingers back into the cream and looked up at Lance’s face, unnecessarily saying, “Look up at me,” as he raised his fingers towards Lance’s face.

“Fuck you,” Lance grumbled, tilting his chin up despite the barely any height difference between them. Keith had an inch on him, _maybe_. Two if Lance was being generous.

Keith steadied Lance’s face with one hand, holding his chin in place as his other lathered the cream onto Lance’s skin, his fingers twice as careful as they moved over his face, massaging the cream in place. Once done, he patted Lance’s cheek twice before screwing the cap back onto the container and setting it aside. Lance felt stupidly overwhelmed with gratitude.

“Thank you,” he muttered, falling back into his seat in just his sweat pants.

“It’s no problem,” Keith assured him, leaning back against the control panel in front of Lance. They were close enough that their legs slotted together.

“No, I’m serious,” Lance said, suddenly determined to emphasize exactly how thankful he was. “I’m really grateful. You didn’t have to do that, but you did. I… don’t like looking at them. Or touching them. So, thank you.”

Keith’s expression seemed to fall, and he purposely bonked his knee against Lance’s. “You don’t like them, huh?”

Lance laughed, ignoring the way it made his face ache. It seemed to hurt a little less, at least, with the cream adorning his injury. “Not at all,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s stupid, right?” he hastened to say. God, he was lame. Keith probably wouldn’t care at all, if it’d happened to him. “I mean, it’s just a scar.”

“It’s okay to be upset,” Keith assured him. He then trapped one of Lance’s knees between his, holding it there. He didn’t even seem to be doing it consciously, still leaning back on his hands on the panel and looking at Lance seriously. “I’m sure it hurts like hell, and it’s not dumb at all to be upset about it. But I don’t think you need to be.”

Lance nodded. Of course he didn’t need to be. He wasn’t an eighteen year old kid, he was a paladin of Voltron, a soldier in this intergalactic war. He was a vessel, a machine. He didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and he shouldn’t let something like this mean anything to him. As long as he could fight, it didn’t matter.

“Because it looks cool as fuck,” Keith added, and Lance’s eyes widened. He was floored.

“What?” Lance managed weakly, sure he’d misheard him. Except Keith’s eyes were wide with excitement, and he was leaning forward a bit now, smiling.

“You look like, every badass anime character out there. When it heals up, you’re gonna look all weathered and experienced. And you don’t even have to shave your eyebrow to get that cool, shaved eyebrow look! I don’t know, I just think you look, like, grizzled?”

Lance’s heart stopped, and then started again. _Grizzled_? He knew that word. It was a word he’d used when Keith had reappeared, looking two years older. It was a word he’d used in a uselessly bisexual moment, when he’d taken one look at Keith and thought, _holy shit_.

Keith thought he looked grizzled?

He found himself rethinking some of their past interactions, feeling stupidly and embarrassingly hopeful. His brain seemed to be stuck circling around one instance, replaying flashes from their evening with Queen Besda on repeat.

Keith had settled for a fake relationship with him, despite Allura being the obvious choice. But what if Allura hadn’t been the obvious choice, or at least, not to Keith? Was there any chance that he could actually be gay?

Grizzled. Keith had said he looked grizzled. And when Lance managed to escape from his own head, he found that he couldn’t even meet Keith’s eyes, seeing as they seemed to be too busy looking at Lance’s shoulders, his chest

“You really think so?” Lance said, somehow feeling completely cheered up. And how was that fair? That he could spend just ten minutes with Keith and somehow feel so much better?

“I do,” Keith promised him, grinning still. “Honestly, scars are hot as fuck.”

Lance couldn’t help it — he burst out laughing, completely ignoring the pain that accompanied it. Did Keith meant that generally, or did he mean it a bit more personally? Did he, himself, think Lance looked hot as fuck now? Had he thought it before, maybe?

“You’re right,” Lance found himself saying. He couldn’t help looking forward to the weeks to come, when he could take the stitches out, when his scar would fade a bit and look less new and delicate. When he would look weathered, like Keith had said. Experienced. _Grizzled_. “If you think it looks good, then I guess it’s not so bad.”

It felt like a pretty ballsy thing to say, a pretty laying-his-feelings-out-on-the-table kind of thing to say, but he said it anyway. Keith looked up at him, smiling, his cheeks adorned with the cutest pink.

Lance realized, certainly not for the first time, that he was completely and overwhelmingly fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu at [my twitter](http://twitter.com/jacecares) !! i just starting doing one of those klance social media aus on there too, so you can go check that out if you're interested!


	6. day six: making fun of one another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly just complete fluff.

Keith edged his way into the kitchens cautiously, his socked feet stepping silently on the tiled floor.

He figured it was probably pretty rude to steal food from the kitchens of your host planet, especially after they’d provided a giant feast mere hours ago, but Keith couldn’t help feeling hungry. He’d barely managed to eat anything at dinner, Lance having been hell-bent on making him laugh hard enough to spit his food out instead of letting him eat normally. It’d happened once at the beginning of the meal, something that had surprised Keith as much as Lance, and had been embarrassing, to boot, but Lance had seen it as a challenge.

Practically every time Keith had put food in his mouth, no matter how hard he’d tried to ignore Lance, Lance had figured out some way to get Keith’s attention, to make him laugh or nearly choke. It would’ve been infuriating if it hadn’t been so damn funny, but now Keith was up in the middle of the night, restless with an appetite.

Keith figured it wasn’t so bad that he was up, though, seeing as it gave him some peace and alone time to really think about how he wanted to go about all the plans constantly running through his head. And he had real, Voltron-centric plans in there, too, about getting back to Earth and meeting with the Garrison and contacting the Blade of Marmora. But despite this, there was one other plan that constantly found itself insistently niggling at the very forefront of Keith’s mind.

His Lance plan.

Really, it didn’t have much to do with Lance, but with everyone else. It’d been a few weeks since Lance had ended up in the hospital, but Keith hadn’t forgotten the realizations he’d had there, hadn’t forgotten the anger he’d felt and vindictive need to make things right. He still needed to find a way to make Lance realize how loved and appreciated he truly was. Having the others talk to him might help, sure, but Keith felt that actions spoke louder than words, and that someone doing something nice for Lance, for once, might really go a long way.

Of course, there was also the fact that Keith needed to actually talk with everyone else, too. Needed to remind them that Lance was a pillar of this team, that he was always thinking of them and doing things so thoughtlessly and selflessly for them. Needed them to know how unappreciated Lance felt. Needed them to know that Lance had _died_ , dammit.

Because as more time passed, the more sure Keith became that the others didn't know Lance had died. How nonchalant they’d been, how uncaring, made Keith certain they were in the dark. The only other option was that they were barbaric.

To them, it probably looked like Lance had gone and saved one of them once again — something that happened much too often, honestly — and gotten knocked out. Allura had gone into his lion, woken him up, and Lance had been back and better than ever. There was no realization that Lance had experienced his last minutes, no knowledge that he’d met death only to come back from it.

Still, Keith wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it all. He didn’t want to just drop this news like a bomb on the rest of his team and tell them to figure it out, to make it up to Lance. He wanted to have a plan ready in action, wanted to have some sort of feasible idea of how to make things right — that was the black paladin thing to do, anyway, instead of what Keith might’ve done when he was still the red paladin, which probably included a lot more rushing into things and a lot more yelling. Unfortunately, really acting like a leader in this situation meant a lot of thinking, which took a lot of time.

Lance seemed to be doing better recently, though. It was almost like old times, the way Lance would seek him out without warning. More often than not, Keith would be sitting in his lion, accompanied by Krolia and Shiro, when a private comm would open up directly from Red to Black and Lance would be inquiring, “ _Can we take Kaltenecker out with us onto the next planet? I think he feels cooped up in here. He looks sad. And lonely. Do you think he and Cosmo can be friends?_ ”

Spending time with Lance was fun and easy, and everyone else was missing out on it, seeing as Lance no longer went to them for company.

Now, Keith tried to push thoughts of Lance and the plans he had to formulate out of his head. He’d have time to ponder over it more later, but now, he was trying to scan through the fridge he had open, the insides full of a variety of foods he vaguely recognized from the feast. It wouldn’t be wrong of him to take some of it, right? After all, it _had_  been made for Voltron’s arrival.

Trying to squash down probably unreasonable guilt, Keith opened a cupboard to retrieve a plate, only to be interrupted.

“What’re you doing?”

Keith’s gasp was sharp, his hands flying defensively towards his chest as he spun around, eyes wide.

Lance, standing in the entrance to the kitchen, took one look at Keith and burst out laughing.

“Stop!” Keith said immediately, his voice instantly devolving into a whine. “You fucking startled me!”

“K-Keith,” Lance said through giggles, struggling to straighten up. “Your _face_.”

“Shut up!”

“No, seriously — _it’s Galra_!” This sent Lance into another deluge of giggles while Keith frantically patted at his face. It was something that happened to him kind of a lot recently, and it was embarrassing, all right?!

Ever since his fight with Shiro’s clone, Galra feature had been creeping up on him when he least expected it. Like, one night he’d woken up and tried to maneuver to the bathroom through the dark, only to stub his toe, when suddenly the room had been as easy to see as it would’ve been with the lights on. Keith had figured it was just a delayed automatic light effect, until he’d gone into the bathroom and seen his eyes glowing yellow in the mirror.

And other things just like that kept happening. When he was fighting, his teeth sharpened into fangs, and he was sure his eyes went yellow, too, given the sudden clarity and focus everything around him seemed to take on in those moments. It was annoying, how he couldn’t seem to control these changes in his appearance, the only one that stayed the same the new Galra mark on his cheek, very similar to his own mother’s.

“Keith!” Lance wheezed, still in the midsts of a laughing fit even as Keith tried to will his appearance back to normal. “You have —” a gasp “— you have _ears_.”

Keith’s hands flew up automatically, a gasp fumbling from his lips as his fingers met soft, fuzzy ears on the sides of his head. He hissed at Lance, told him to shut up with burning cheeks as he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, tried to breathe and calm down.

His hands remained where they were, so he felt it when his ears seemed to shrink back into the shape they were supposed to be. When he opened his eyes, the dark kitchen still seemed a little too visible, but it was the best he could accomplish for now. Besides, thanks to his current night vision, he could see the actual mess that was Lance’s appearance, who was now leaning against a counter and sighing happily, wiping a tear of mirth out of the corner of his eye.

“Look who’s laughing,” Keith scoffed, crossing his arms defensively as he looked Lance up and down. And Keith would never say this out loud, but Lance looked beautiful, as always. Pale moonlight was filtering in from a nearby window, making Lance’s skin look more blue than its usual brown. He was barefoot, wearing sweatpants and a white t-shirt. The scar on his face barely seemed noticeable anymore. Not because it’d faded, but because Keith was used to it, and because it was nothing compared to the breadth of his smile, to the light of his eyes. “I mean, seriously Lance, your _hair_.”

Immediately, Lance’s smile dropped off his face, his eyes widening. Lance was someone who very much cared about his appearance. Even in his lion he had tons of skin creams and hair care products. It was so rare to see Lance not put together that it felt impossible that this could be his natural, just-woken-up state. Sure, Keith had seen him less put together before, but that was usually at the end of a battle or doing a week-long stint on an uninhabited planet with their only water source being slowly dripped out of trees.

Now, Lance stood before him with his hair standing up in all directions. It looked like he’d rubbed his head in a pillow just before walking into the kitchen.

Lance’s hands flew up to press down on his hair frantically, smoothing it into some semblance of what it usually looked like. He was glaring at Keith, looking ready to tackle him for daring to make fun of his hair.

“You’ll pay for this, Kogane,” he said, hands falling back to his sides. Keith’s eyebrows rose up his forehead in surprise and excitement, hearing the playful edge to Lance’s tone coupled with the mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Bring it, McClain!” With that, Keith sprinted around the counter top, Lance immediately giving chase. Keith circled the counter once, twice, and just when Lance began to gain on him, _vaulted_  himself over it, sliding across the cool marble before his feet smacked on the other side and he took off running down the hall.

“Get back here!” Lance shouted with no regard to their sleeping hosts. To be fair, it _was_  a pretty big castle, and Keith had forgotten as well, the halls home to his and Lance’s shrieks and giggles as they chased each other around. Keith would whip around corners only to duck into alcoves and pop back out behind Lance, running away breathless with laughter because of Lance’s shrieks.

Lance ranted in gasps about how he was going to catch him, about how Keith was going to regret it, about how he was going to cut off Keith’s mullet, _just you wait and see!_

As always, Keith’s downfall was getting too cocky. He’d evaded Lance for long enough that he felt confident he wouldn’t be caught, performing more stupid stunts in an attempt to anger Lance, like doubling back behind him and just straight up stopping, making Lance go sprinting past him in surprise.

When Lance caught him, Keith let out a yell, gasping with laughter as Lance’s fingers caught in his shirt and _yanked_ , pulling him back into his chest. Lance’s arms wrapped around his torso, holding him securely despite Keith struggling in his arms. Keith’s back was pressed tight against Lance’s firm chest, and they panted out of sync, Keith able to feel each of Lance’s breaths behind him.

“Gotchu,” Lance sang, once he’d gained a semblance of his breath back. Keith just leaned back against him, letting Lance take his weight and reveling in the feel of their bodies against each other.

“You still hungry?” Lance asked. His hands, which had been wrapped around Keith’s stomach, drifted to his hips. Keith wondered if Lance was aware of the fact that he was toying with the waistband of Keith’s sweatpants, twisting and turning it between his fingers, his knuckles brushing against Keith’s bare skin. Goose bumps exploded everywhere Lance touched, and Keith shivered in his arms. He wanted more. He wanted it always.

“Starving,” Keith managed, leaning his head back against Lance’s shoulder. There, he looked up at Lance, who blinked down at him.

“I guess it’s my fault you didn’t get very much dinner in the first place.”

“You _guess_  it’s your fault?”

“You’re right,” Lance said, shaking his head. “That was totally all you. Learning to swallow is like, step one of being alive.”

“You’re ridicu —” Keith interrupted himself with a strangled yell when Lance suddenly wrapped his arms firmly around his stomach again, leaning back just enough that Keith’s feet came off the floor, despite him being marginally taller than Lance now. Lance ignored his demands to be put down, laughing hotly into his ear as he stumbled a few steps down the hall in the direction of the kitchens.

When Lance inevitably grew tired from holding a struggling Keith in the air, he set him back down again, letting Keith walk back into the kitchens like a dignified leader of Voltron should. This time, Keith wasn’t in a hall surrounded by hundred of strangers and decadent food and silverware more expensive than his home back on Earth. Instead, he was solely with Lance, and they couldn’t fine any silverware, so they ate by picking at the dishes with their hands, sitting shoulder to shoulder on the floor, their backs pressed against the cabinets behind them.

And despite this, Keith thought it might’ve been the best dinner he’d ever had.


	7. day seven: a death of someone close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith deals with the death of someone close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm telling you rn that this story is never gonna get Too angsty and as you can see that i haven't tagged major character death, i want you to release the breath you're holding
> 
> tw for someone dying tho
> 
> but seriously calm down

Lance poked at the vendor’s wares, eyeing the brightly colored jewels but being sure not to touch them.

It wasn’t every day they got a chance to simply relax anymore, and Lance couldn’t be more thankful for it. Ever since he’d had been attacked, Allura was more wary than ever about landing on planets she wasn’t familiar with. This meant they spent a lot of time cooped up in their lions, exhausted and bored from flying for so long. Lance wondered what she would do if they ever ran into the Galra again, which was how he and Keith had ended up on that uninhabited planet in the first place, having been flying for too long.

Maybe it would just continue in a cycle. Fly until near-exhaustion, almost die. Never fly while exhausted and land on every planet possible, almost die. Rinse and repeat.

This time, though, they hadn’t even had to find the planet themselves. They’d just been flying past when they’d been hailed, having been recognized by the citizens on planet Thorax. In classic Voltron style, they’d rushed to the surface, expecting trouble, only to receive praise. They’d been thanked for all their efforts thus far and offered accommodations by the Thoraxian king. He’d invited them to stay for as long as they liked, so now they were taking a much needed break, Earth still several galaxies away.

Left to their own devices, everyone had spread out to do whatever it was they didn’t usually get to do while near-constantly flying their lions through the abyss that was space. Lance had used this opportunity to walk down the bustling streets of Thorax and examine all the merchants and wares he could. Coins rattled in his pockets that begged to be spent, and Lance was just itching to buy some new sort of face product or other trinket to have.

Although apparently, Lance wasn’t destined to do all his shopping alone. Cosmo found him before Keith did, teleporting in front of Lance with a burst of light and almost making him trip over the poor animal. Immediately, Lance dropped to his knees, burying his hands in Cosmo’s fur and demanding ‘who’s a good boy?!’ (as if he didn’t already know).

Moments later, Keith found him as well, looking as satisfied as he did sweaty. “Lance!” he greeted happily, grinning as Lance stood up and tried (and failed) to ignore the way Cosmo nudged his hand, begging for more pets.

“Hey, Keith,” Lance said. “You’re looking sweatier than usual.” His hair was pulled back and he was wearing some shirt that he must’ve cut the sleeves off of, because his shoulders were bare and much of his sides were visible. Lance couldn’t keep his eyes off him.

“I was training with Shiro,” Keith said happily. And then, “Hunk was telling me about some funnel cake-like thing they’re selling out here. You wanna get one with me?”

Lance blinked, his mouth going dry as he managed the littlest of nods. It wasn’t Keith’s fault that that request sounded horribly like a date. No, the fault belonged to Lance, for being so head over heels for Keith that something sounding even vaguely date-like made him feel dizzy. “That sounds great,” he finally managed. Keith’s wide smile felt like a bullet to Lance’s heart.

Together, they walked back down the street the way Lance had come, chatting about everything and nothing in a way that made Lance wish he could wrap his arm around Keith’s waist and make this a date for real.

Their not-date was brought to a sudden halt, however, when Shiro stepped out from an alley, stopping right in front of Lance and Keith.

“Shiro,” Keith said, his voice full of surprise, the reason obvious. “Your hair…”

Shiro’s hair looked normal. Or, not _normal_ , per-se, but how it’d looked before Allura had performed her voodoo magic on him. Black, with that tuft of white at the front.

“Isn’t it great?” Shiro said, grinning. “They have all sorts of hair dyes here, I thought I’d try one out.”

Keith’s mouth was downturned, but he shrugged, looking okay enough with that explanation. Lance, however, still felt uneasy. He was squinted at Shiro. “Why didn’t you dye the front?” he asked, and Shiro’s gaze shifted over to him, hardening a bit. Lance was used to that look.

“I didn’t want to,” Shiro said. “It’s been like this for so long, it just felt natural.”

Lance frowned. “Where’d you find the hair dye, anyway?” He’d been all over this market, checking and double checking his options before buying anything. He’d definitely used to be less of a conscientious buyer, more likely to just throw his money at the first interesting thing he saw, but now, not so much. He wanted to make sure he was making the best possible purchase, getting the most out of his money.

“Down that way,” Shiro said, angling his thumb over his shoulder. Lance leaned around him to look down the street. He was sure there was no one selling hair dye over here. The more Lance looked, the more certain he became. There was the weapons vendor, and there, the fresh fruit one. Lance could see the tables stacked with clothing and the ones with all sorts of jewelry. But not one of them rang a bell for _hair dye_.

“Keith —” Lance started to say, feeling cautious, when out of nowhere, a gunshot sounded. Lance didn’t know where it’d come from, or what it’d hit, until Shiro was falling down in front of them, his body smacking grotesquely against the ground as blood pooled out around him.

“ _Shiro_!” Keith screamed, collapsing immediately onto his body. Lance was helpless, unable to do anything but stare in shock as Keith repeated Shiro’s name over and over to no response. A choked sob fell from his lips as he was left shaking over Shiro’s body, crying as he watched his friend, his _brother_  die.

“No,” Keith moaned, his fingers twisting in Shiro’s shirt. “No, please.”

Shellshocked, Lance spun, looking for the person who’d shot him in the first place. He had his shield out, hadn’t even realized he’d gotten it out, but he’d edged closer to Keith in doing so, was protecting both their bodies as his head whipped left and right, looking for the assailant.

Finally, Lance’s eyes befell a Thoraxian further down the street, glaring in his direction with his arm extended, a gun in his hands. There was commotion everywhere, people shouting over each other loudly. The noise must’ve gained more than just the Thoraxians attention, as Lance watched as Allura came striding through the crowed, and beside her, Shiro.

 _Shiro_.

“Keith!” Lance shouted, relief hitting him like a wave as he recognized the white-haired, soft-eyed Shiro scanning the crowd. “Keith, that’s not him! That’s not Shiro!”

Somehow, Lance’s words got through to Keith, probably because he’d been shaking his shoulder. Keith looked up at him, his face wet with tears and his lip quivering as he managed to choked out, “What?”

Instead of answering, Lance hauled Keith to his feet, taking a moment to hug him to his side as he pointed through the crowd at the Shiro that wasn’t a clone, his shield dissolving as he did.

Lance felt Keith’s relief almost as vividly as his own, feeling Keith’s body slump against his as a disbelieving sob escaped him, before he was straightening back up and slipping out of Lance’s arm to instead dart through the crowd, shouting, “Shiro!”

He barreled into the older man’s arms, surprising him, though Shiro hugged him back without question. Lance, still several people away from Keith and Shiro and a confused looking Allura, looked back at what must have been a clone of Shiro. All around him, people were murmuring to each other, though none of them sounded particularly… confused.

“What’s going on?” Lance asked. The man that had shot Shiro — clone Shiro — was still standing across the way, his gun now holstered. Beside Lance, a little girl answered.

“They keep showing up,” she said, looking up at Lance earnestly. She was holding her mother’s hand, who was too deep in another conversation to notice the one going on between her daughter and the red paladin. “They tell us to summon Voltron, that they got separated from the team, but our King says not to believe them. He says to kill them instead.”

Lance’s eyes widened. It was eery to hear a little girl speak of killing someone, clone or not. His eyes darted over to Shiro, the real Shiro, who now had an arm wrapped around Keith’s shoulder and was talking to him earnestly. The only difference between him and the Shiro that’d been shot was their hair. What if someone shot Shiro, the real one this time? The clone hadn’t even had a chance to defend itself — what if Shiro didn’t either?

“We have to get out of here,” Lance said, more to himself than anyone else around him. The Thoraxians might have invited them with good intentions, but that didn’t stop the fact that Shiro was in danger here. All it would take was one person’s err of judgement and they’d be missing a crucial member of their team. Plus, why hadn’t the king warned them about their clone problem in the first place?

Lance pushed through the crowd hurriedly, explaining all this to Allura in a low voice, watching her eyes grow wider with every word. She, too, was left staring at Shiro in a fearful and protective manner, still oblivious and letting Keith cling to him, reassuring him and making him laugh.

With the issue firmly out of Lance’s hands, he let his attention drift, let his thoughts wander as Allura informed Shiro and Keith of the situation. Soon enough, they were all rushing back to the palace, demanding a presence with the King and contacting the rest of their team through the comm pieces they were wearing in their ears, thanks to Pidge.

Talking to the King was a situation which included Allura speaking peaceably and somehow managing to stop Keith every time he nearly interrupted with something angry and rude. In the end, the King claimed it came down to a difference in cultures, to the Thoraxian’s desire for Team Voltron to feel comfortable and rested and completely unstressed. He hadn’t wanted to worry them with their clone situation, something that he claimed they had entirely under control. He ended up pleading with them to stay another night as an apology, assuring them that Shiro would be perfectly safe for the rest of their stay, even going out of his way to point out how he’d informed his subjects of the real Shiro’s hair, which was why he’d been safe to this point anyway.

Lance didn’t really want to stay. He didn’t think it was wise, felt it’d be safer to just be out on the road again (and yeah, he knew there wasn’t _actually_  a road, Keith) than at the Thoraxian’s mercy. Besides, who was to say this wasn’t all some big trap? Maybe the clones had been part of their plan, and now that that plan had gone awry, they were scrambling for some excuse for them to stay longer, or something. Lance wasn’t too sure on the semantics, but he _was_  sure about his wariness over sleeping in some random palace. That hadn’t gone too well for him in recent history.

Still, he didn’t speak up with this opinion, and it’d probably be disregarded even if he did. And so, seeing as Allura and Keith thought it was a pretty good idea (probably influenced with their just as prevalent exhaustion that came with constant flying), they decided to stay the extra night.

Lance spent the rest of the evening trying to get rid of his anxiety. All the leader-y people of the team obviously felt safe enough to stay another night, and he doubted Shiro would be left alone for even a moment after all of this anyway. And so, Lance went about doing the best he could to calm down, which included taking a long, luxurious bath and using a nice face mask he’d had stashed away in his lion. He never had ended up buying anything from the market, but then again, these days he rarely did.

By the time Lance was done pampering himself, he miraculously felt a bit better and ended up lounging in his bed in his bathrobe. He had a book perched on his knee, one of the few he’d managed to snag at Earth stores in space malls, and it was like that he fell asleep, entirely without meaning to but not entirely uncommonly.

It was a little less than an hour later when his door cracked open, and someone came tiptoeing in.

“Lance?”

The sound of his name had him jerking awake, sucking in a breath through his nose and sitting up straight, his finger still somehow marking his place in his book. That was when he noticed Keith, however, standing beside his bed in pajamas and wrapped in a duvet, wearing a pout on his lips.

“Keith?” Lance muttered, setting his book aside and sitting up even more. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

Keith’s lip pursed out. “Everything’s fine,” he said, toying with the edge of his duvet. He almost looked unsure as to why he was even there. Almost. “I can’t sleep,” he finally elaborated, his eyes falling to the ground, something evidently very interesting down there. “Every time I close my eyes, I see Shiro dying again. And I’ve already bothered him all day, I don’t think he’d appreciate me waking him up when he’s finally fallen asleep…”

Lance didn’t even have to think about it. He’d scooted across the bed before Keith had finished his sentence, was patting his bed by the time he looked up from his feet. “Come on,” Lance said with a jerk of his head. “Nothing makes you sleep better than a good cuddle.”

Keith’s cheeks grew pink, but he climbed into the bed obediently, not even objecting when Lance held his arm out. Instead, he scooted right into the embrace, leaning up against Lance and throwing his duvet over the both of them. Lance fell back asleep easily, his body warm snuggled up against Keith’s, his cheek pressed against Keith’s head which was pressed against his shoulder.

In his last moments of wakefulness, Lance really wished he could get used to this.


	8. day eight: sleeping in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith snaps.

Keith had a certain routine to his mornings, a way he went about doing things that was steady and familiar and good for getting his day on track.

On the castle, he’d always woken up early in order to train and shower before heading to have breakfast with the team. It’d been a big change going from that to the Blade, where he’d never really been granted something as simple as a normal sleep schedule. Instead, he’d caught hours whenever he could, on ships in between missions and in his bunk despite whether it was actually “night” or not. Given it was actually a morning, he’d wake up and shower at the first chance he got.

In the time rift, he’d gone on morning runs with Cosmo, stopping afterwards to take a bath in a nearby river. By the time he’d returned, Krolia would have breakfast cooking, and Keith would add whatever fruit and vegetables he’d gathered on his run that day.

Now, given that they didn’t have the castle or any “normal” mornings, mornings tended to differ for Keith. He’d jerk awake in his lion, having accidentally fallen asleep after putting her on auto-pilot, or he’d blink awake on a planet he couldn’t even remember the name of, scrambling to get dressed and join the team before he could be alone any longer.

Today was unlike the mornings he’d gotten used to.

There was no moment were he was suddenly thrust into wakefulness, no second where he realized where he was, or more likely, realized he _didn’t_  quite know where he was. Instead, he was pulled from sleep slowly, as if being tugged through water by a thread. It was in no way abrupt or all at once, instead just soft and comfortable and warm.

The blankets around Keith were soft and plush, fit for the bedding in a palace, but that wasn’t even the best part. One of his arms was folded underneath him, the rest of his body curled around something soft and warm. Something that smelled like laundry and deodorant and boy.

It was around the same time that Keith realized his body was slowly rising and falling that he became aware of fingers running through his hair, playing with his ears.

Wait, his ears?

Keith frowned into his abnormally comfortable pillow. His ears definitely felt different than usual. As he thought about them, he felt them twitch, and his face was suddenly jolted upward as his pillow let out a snort, fingers immediately going back in to brush and stroke…

His Galra ears were out?! Ever since it’d first happened that night Lance had startled him, they’d only really shown up when he was feeling particularly comfortable and at ease, like when he got to take a warm bath on a new planet or when he fell asleep with Cosmo curled against his back.

Although, he guessed he couldn’t really deny how comfortable he was here, lying in—

Holy shit, Lance’s bed! It was Lance he was laying on! Lance, playing with his hair and ears. Lance with an arm wrapped around his torso.

As quickly as the panic had come, Keith forced it to go away. Lance obviously didn’t mind cuddling. He’d always been a touchy person, had used to constantly be seen leaning on Hunk or pulling a whining Pidge into his arms for a hug. Just last night, he’d held out his arms for Keith to crawl into, so he obviously didn’t mind this. Some people were just touchier than others, it didn’t have to mean anything.

Keith’s ears twitched more as he woke up further. Now, it wasn’t really because he was thinking about them, but because they were reacting to each and every of Lance’s touches. Feeling unable to hide the fact that he was awake any longer, Keith let his eyes slide open as he looked up at Lance, finding him already looking down at him.

“Morning,” Lance said lowly. He didn’t stop petting through Keith’s hair even then, obviously completely unabashed with his actions.

Keith grunted a semblance of a response, much less alert than he usually was in the mornings. Lance huffed out a laugh.

“Do these always pop out when you’re sleeping?” He asked, grabbed Keith’s ears and pulling on them lightly, just like Keith liked to do to Cosmo. He couldn’t help the groan that sounded low in his throat, his eyes fluttering shut at Lance’s touch.

“No,” he finally admitted, when Lance’s hand returned to the back of his neck, pulling and twisting the hairs there. “Just when I’m— just sometimes.”

Lance hummed. “Allura came by,” he finally said. “She said we’re not leaving for another few hours still, so we can sleep in if we want.”

Keith wondered what Allura must have thought, walking in on the two of them cuddling together. He knew what _he_  wouldn’t thought. And God, he wished it was true.

And normally, Keith wasn’t one to sleep in. He was the kind of person who would accidentally wake up at 5am and be unable to fall back asleep afterwards. Now, it must’ve been well past the early hours of the morning, the light filtering brightly into the room, but he found himself nodding, agreeing to going back to sleep with Lance.

“Good,” Lance said, sliding further down the bed. This dislodged Keith, but it didn’t matter, as Lance ended up flinging an arm around his waist and pulling him even closer as he got comfortable. “‘Cause I’m still sleepy.”

Keith, on the other hand, was wide a-fucking-wake. His eyes were like saucers as he stared at Lance, practically nose to nose with him, his eyes close and his face already going slack.

Were they ever going to talk about this again?! Was this a one-time cuddle event only, or would they be some sort of cuddle buddies now? Would Allura confront them about it, ask them if they were dating because of it? God, how Keith longed to say yes, to know he could fall asleep with Lance like this every night and counting.

In the end, Allura really was generous with the extra hours she allotted them to sleep. Keith couldn’t manage to catch a wink of it, completely awake the entire time, forced to feel the heat of Lance’s body against his own, the way his fingers twitched in his sleep, the way his lips sometimes pursed as if he was about to say something. It was torture.

—

“Alright team, let’s just ease around ‘em.” Despite the fact that no one could possibly hear him out in space unless they, too, were connected to Voltron’s comms, Keith lowered his voice. It was a natural instinct at seeing your enemy, though as of yet they hadn’t been spotted back. It probably made sense, Voltron not quite big enough to be much of a blip on their radar compared to the massive castle they’d used to pilot, but it was still anxiety inducing to see a battle cruiser in the distance and know your safety could be in jeopardy.

“ _Couldn’t we form Voltron?_ ” Lance suggested, albeit tentatively over the comms. “ _And use the green lion’s cloaking device_?”

Keith frowned as he thought over it. But he didn’t get a chance to answer, much less ask Pidge whether that would actually be possible, when Pidge was responding herself. “ _No_ ,” she scoffed, and Keith could practically hear the roll of her eyes from here. “ _The only time we’ve managed to make_ Voltron  _go invisible Matt was here helping me keep it that way. And even then we could barely do it for that long_.”

_“Oh yeah, I just —”_

Hunk interrupted Lance. “Why don’t you stick to making us laugh, buddy,” he said, and even Allura let out a peal of laughter at that. Keith felt his jaw drop in indignation, his shoulders squaring as his hands unintentionally pressed forward on Black’s levers, making fire sputter from her engines and shoot him forward — exactly the kind of attention they were trying _not_  to draw to themselves.

His anger only grew at the way Lance fell immediately silent, not even protesting against what Hunk had said. Which was bullshit! Lance came up with great plans all the time, okay? He’d had all sorts of ideas that worked well for them, and Keith was sure he’d have even more if everyone would stop shooting him down all the time. Angrily, Keith’s mind seemed to be playing on repeat instances from even just the last few weeks: Lance gathering water from trees; Lance’s quick thinking about faking a relationship; Lance fighting hoards of guards just to protect his friends. Lance, doing everything for others _all the time_  and being wholly and completely unappreciated for it.

Keith snapped.

His carefully formed thoughts and plans about talking to his teammates one on one, about showing them how they were dragging Lance down, bit by bit, and encouraging them to start raising him back up again, flew right out the window. Instead, fire burned in Keith’s veins, and he found his voice rising as he snapped over the comms, “ _Excuse me_?”

Silence fell, everyone perhaps having taken in his tone, and Keith took that silence as a cue to continue.

“You guys are _not_  acting like a team,” he said sternly, his hands shaking where he gripped the levers. He didn’t even notice as he shot forward faster, ignoring Shiro’s warning of, “Keith,” behind him.

“ _Keith_ ,” Pidge said, but Keith was shaking his head, continuing before she could get another word in edgewise.

“It’s ridiculous, how often you guys pick on Lance. You’re constantly dragging him down, never sparing a thought for his feelings just to make yourself feel that much bigger. By doing this, you’re not just hurting the team — you’re hurting _Lance_. He’s your friend! Why would you ever want to make your friend feel this was? What the hell makes you think it’s okay?!”

“ _Keith_  —” Lance said, but Keith didn’t let him continue either.

“ _No_ , Lance. I’m tired of seeing everyone walk all over you. I’m tired of you thinking it’s okay! It’s not okay! It’s bullshit, is what it is!”

“Keith,” Shiro said again, stern, but Keith didn’t even hear him.

“It’s ridiculous!” Keith snapped. “You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed Lance’s absence! When’s the last time he’s made a joke to any of you, huh? Do you guys even realize he _died_  that day when he saved Allura? He gave his life, and none of you even said anything about it afterwards!”

“ _Keith_!” This time, it was everyone’s voices at once saying his name. Keith finally snapped to attention, realizing he was flying at full throttle. In the distance, the battle cruiser was turning towards them, ships streaming out of its ports.

“Fuck,” he said. “We’ll talk about this later. Form Voltron!”

Actually being in Voltron was one of the strangest things Keith had ever had to get used to. It’d been jarring when he’d been thrown back into when he’d finally come back, Shiro’s clone having taken Lotor and left. Jarring, but wonderfully familiar.

It was like the mind meld they sometimes practiced with, but a million times stronger. They couldn’t just hear each other’s thoughts, they _felt_  each other’s thoughts. They thought them in tandem, ideas combining and tangling until they were like one big mind, controlling Voltron as easily and thoughtlessly as taking a step, raising an arm.

Just because they were connected didn’t mean their thoughts were indistinguishable, though. They could usually feel the thrum of each other’s feelings and emotions. Now, they were louder than ever.

One emotion was particularly more present than all the rest, though. Steady and thick, practically weighing them down. Guilt. Guilt and realization as they likely recounted their actions, thought over all the times they’d likely acted just as Keith had pointed out.

Beneath that, Lance’s emotions were distinctly discernible. Surprise, over Keith’s outburst in general. Gratitude mixed with embarrassment, as if he’d wanted to hide that fact that he’d even been hurt by everyone’s words in the first place. And, even quieter, something light and warm. Something Keith couldn’t quite figure out, but which sent shivers down his skin.

The Galra were flying towards them fast, the laser beams at the front of their fighter jets already glowing as they warmed up.

“You guys can feel guilty over your actions and apologize to Lance later,” Keith said gruffly. “For now, we have a battle to win.”


	9. day nine: hugging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A whoooole lotta hugs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: ooooh yeah i'm gonna do a 30 day challenge that'll be a fun excuse to write 1-2k words every day  
> me, today: 5k words  
> me: what?  
> me: FIVE!!! THOUSAND!!! WORDS!!!
> 
> anyway enjoy this longer than usual update i guess

 

 

> **i. hunk**

The battle wasn’t a hard one to win, considering there was only one battle cruiser. They managed to destroy their communications center before they could call for backup, so they didn’t end up overwhelmed and on the run. Instead, they were surrounded by a destroyed mass of Galra ships, all floating aimlessly through space as they maneuvered safely through it before disbanding.

They hadn’t been talking, even then, but as they separated into their lions it became truly obvious how loud their silence was. No one said a word, the five of them just flying in the same direction they always were, all fanning out in a V behind Keith.

Lance bit his lip, wondering if the silence would ever be broken. He still felt strange, knowing what had just occurred. Knowing it all revolved around him. He almost felt responsible for bringing this awkward silence over them.

He’d never even realized that Keith had somehow, at some point, become attuned to his exact feelings. In those moments, his voice loud and righteous as he’d told off the team, it was like he’d had a direct channel into Lance’s brain. Like he’d been plucking his feelings and emotions out and dangling them in front of everyone’s faces, leaving Lance wide-eyed and terrified that they were no longer safe and secure inside his own body, hidden from being seen, from being another weakness of his catalogued to the team.

It almost didn’t feel real. Did Lance deserve to have Keith stand up for him? For the team’s easy banter and joking nature — regardless of whether the jokes were at Lance’s expense — to be put on the line, simply for Lance’s feelings?

He felt sure everyone was annoyed at him. They probably thought he’d gone running to Keith, had asked him to make them stop picking on him, as if he couldn’t take a few jokes about himself here and there.

Then, Lance slumped in his seat. Why was he even pretending? Why was he pretending that what his friends said didn’t affect him, didn’t weigh him down? That he hadn’t been waiting for them to stop being mean to him and start being nice again on their own accord?

Here Keith was, standing up for him, and Lance couldn’t even find it within himself to break the silence, to speak up and thank Keith for what he’d said.

Lance didn’t know whether he was surprised or not when the silence continued to stretch on. For hours. Not a single person broke it, not even with a sniff or a cough or a sneeze. It wasn’t until they were flying past a planet surrounded by more moons than Lance could count that Keith spoke up.

“Should we land on one of these moons to rest, Allura?” he asked, his voice gruff. It didn’t sound gruff with disuse, but with anger. As if, even flying through the vastness of space for the last few hours, he’d held onto his anger and stewed in it. It seemed impossible to Lance that someone could be that upset on his behalf, that defensive, but here Keith was.

“I think that should be fine,” Allura said quietly. As one, the five lions descended to the moon closest to them, landing and powering down their flight mechanisms. There was no atmosphere here, so it would be another sleeping-in-their-lions kind of night. Lance pulled his feet up onto his chair, pulling his knees in close to his chest and resting his chin on them. He could already tell it was going to be a long night. He doubted he’d be able to sleep.

One by one, he watched the lights flick off on his screens as his friends disconnected their comms, no doubt getting ready for bed. Keith’s remained connected, though he didn’t say anything, and neither did Lance. He just stared at the little image of the black lion, still lit up, and felt the smallest of smiles grace his lips, knowing he _could_  say something if he wanted to, and Keith would be there. And Shiro and Krolia, he guessed, the additional semi-permanent residents of the black lion.

Lance was distracted from his screen, however, when there came a knock against the door behind Lance, the one that led from the pilot’s room to the rest of the red lion’s interior, where Kaltenecker was currently sleeping. Someone must’ve entered from one of Red’s lower entrances, and seeing as she hadn’t issued a warning to Lance nor brought down her particle barrier, it had to have been one of his team.

“Um. Come in?” he said, the command sounding more like a question as he tried to figure out who was there. The doors slid open, revealing Hunk, and Lance felt his cheeks go pink as he realized he was, in fact, embarrassed to face any of his teammates after Keith’s blow up. Go figure.

“Hey,” Hunk said, and Lance swung his feet to the floor and stood because he realized he’d probably looked pretty pathetic, curled up in his chair like that.

“Hey,” Lance returned, gripping his elbow with his hand and puffing out his cheek awkwardly. And that was so weird, by the way. Lance having any reason at all to feel awkward in front of Hunk. They’d been the best of friends, once, the kind that told each other anything and had enough inside jokes that they could be giggling through a conversation while everyone else was left confused and in the dark. Now, Lance wouldn’t dare open up about his feelings — not at the risk of getting made fun of. Just the thought of telling Hunk about how he felt about Keith, about the way his stomach tangled in knots, the way he grew hot and sweaty all over, made him want to shrink back in fear. He very clearly remembered his disastrous attempt at talking about his last crush with Hunk and Pidge, thank you very much.

“Lance,” Hunk said, stepping forward and coming closer to Lance. His face was contorted with a frown, which always looked out of place on a face so clearly made for smiling. “I’m sorry.”

Lance laughed. “It’s no problem buddy! I didn’t even ask Keith to say those things, so—”

“No, Lance,” Hunk interrupted. “I’m really, _really_  sorry. Keith’s right! I didn’t even realize how much of a jerk I was being until he spelled it out for us. And I never knew you _died_ , dude. I just— to think that you were, that you could’ve been—” Hunk sucked in a big, watery breath, before he continued in a choked voice. “I’m just really glad you’re okay, you know? I don’t know what I would ever do without you. And… I was really taking our friendship for granted. There’s no good excuse, but I hope you can forgive me. I love you, man.”

Lance’s mouth was open, surprise evident in his expression and happiness blossoming in his chest. He’d never expected for something like this to go down, even in his wildest dreams. At the most, he’d just thought Hunk might start trying to hang out with him again, asking him to accompany to the market or try to shoot some weird alien birds with him. He’d never expected a big apology.

“Of course I forgive you,” Lance finally said, his voice low with emotion. Hunk grinned, his eyes growing watery, that big cry baby, and then he was stepping forward and yanking Lance into a hard hug, shoving his face into Lance’s neck, which was particularly uncomfortable, due to their helmets.

“Ouch!” Lance said, laughing even as he tried to push Hunk off. “I’m not completely healed yet, big guy.”

Hunk let out a yell, releasing Lance and jumping backwards in order to pat his chest gently through his armor. “Crap! Are you okay? Did I pull a stitch? Are you—”

“I’m fine,” Lance assured him. “And all the stitches have dissolved already. It’s just still kind of sore, and stuff.”

“Your face, too?”

Lance smiled wryly. “That one hurts less,” he said. “Those muscles get used a lot more. Too many expressions, I guess.”

Hunk stayed a little longer, just talking with Lance and pulling him into hugs practically every other minute, but Lance couldn’t deny his much-improved mood by the time Hunk left to get ready for bed in his own lion. Lance sighed happily, plopping into the pilot’s chair and realizing, once again, that he and Keith were still connected. He wondered if Keith had been listening that whole time.

“Hey Keith?” he said suddenly, staring up at the little image of the black lion as he did.

“ _Yeah?_ ” Keith responded, proving that he was, in fact, still there. He must’ve been wearing his helmet, otherwise Lance probably would’ve heard Shiro and Krolia in the background, which meant his voice was going directly into Keith’s ear and Keith’s ear alone.

“Thank you,” Lance said quietly, unable to keep from smiling. It was thanks to Keith that Hunk had even come to him, after all.

“ _It’s nothing_ ,” Keith said, and maybe he really did think that, but it wasn’t true at all. It was everything.

“Goodnight,” Lance added, wishing suddenly that it could be that morning again, that he could wake up with Keith in his arms and hold him close. He still couldn’t believe Keith had allowed that to happen, had let him cuddle him for so long. He wondered what had been going through his mind. If he’d realized Lance’s feelings for him, maybe, and was simply trying to appease him.

“ _Goodnight, Lance_ ,” Keith answered, and Lance finally went about getting ready for bed, suddenly sure that he’d be able to sleep fine.

 

 

> **ii. pidge**

Not everyone was as obvious as Hunk in their ways of apologizing to Lance, of making it all up to him. Still, he could tell they felt different, from the ways they seemed to smile at him apologetically, how they were more soft spoken, how they complimented him for his accomplishments and actually listened when he spoke.

That wasn’t all, though. It was clear their guilt remained with them, despite their attempts to make up for their past actions. Lance guessed they couldn’t all just apologize to Lance and feel better that way. He didn’t blame them — not everyone could be as strong as Hunk, recognizing their faults and facing the terror of actually owning up to them.

Pidge, for example, went out of her way to include Lance in things. Like, more than before when they’d actually hung out on the regular. It was getting to the point where Lance was having to turn her down, because she kept inviting him to things he would never enjoy, like a technology convention on the planet of Ethos or the Dungeon of the Dead on planet Marx (as if anyone sane would ever want to go someplace called the _Dungeon_  of the _Dead_ ).

Still, he appreciated her attempts, and enjoyed whatever time he actually did spend with her. They ended up chilling with Hunk more often than not, and Lance was surprised by how much it felt like old times. He was also surprised by his occasional and intense desire to _not_  be there. He’d see Keith walk by a window, apparently strolling through the elegant gardens on the planet they were staying on, and Lance would be jumping to his feet and bidding his friends farewell as he raced to join him.

Then again, maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised when Pidge figured out about his crush, considering how smart she was and how obvious he was about his feelings for Keith. She ended up cornering him that night on the same elegant garden planet, bursting into his room with her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised. “You like Keith,” she said. “Spill.”

Lance found himself spluttering, attempting to come up with some sort of excuse and failing miserably. He was completely comfortable with his sexuality, had recognized it for what it was and accepted it since he was in middle school, but he’d still never really brought it up to anyone. Part of this was because of the fact that he found it stupid that being straight was even considered the default, and also because he’d never seen his sexuality as a big deal anyway.

Still, he’d thought the fact that he’d never explicitly said that he liked boys as well as girls would’ve helped hide his crush on Keith from Pidge’s prying eyes. Evidently not.

“What makes you think that?!” he finally ended up saying, to which Pidge rolled her eyes so hard it looked like it hurt.

“I’m not blind, unlike _some_  people around here. Are you gonna tell him, or what?”

“No!” Lance screeched, his eyes widening in a panic. Was _she_  going to tell him?! Oh God!

Pidge just huffed in annoyance. “Honestly, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Um, he could hate my guts forever? He could be disgusted. He could stop wanting to be my friend. He could —”

“Okay, I get it!” Pidge interrupted. “You’re insecure.”

“That is _not_  true!” Lance argued.

“I’m just saying,” Pidge said, “I think it’d be worth a shot.”

“All right,” Lance said blandly. “Thanks for that advice.”

“And… you can talk to me,” she added suddenly, her lips pursed. “Any time.”

Lance’s mouth curved up into a smile. “Awww,” he crooned. “Pidgey _loves_  me!” He yanked her into a hug, which Pidge didn’t even fight and smack at him throughout. Instead, she hugged him back, however briefly, and stepped hastily away.

“Whatever,” she said, but Lance could see a similar smile on her face, even as she finally left his room.

 

 

> **iii. allura**

Pidge was a blabbermouth. You’d think she’d be good at keeping secrets, considering she’d pretended to be a boy for so long, but nope. She was a complete and utter blabbermouth.

The evidence was obvious when, the very next day, Allura kept sending him these _looks_. Like, _come here and gossip with me_  looks. Lance didn’t pay them much attention, considering the fact that he was as busy getting to leave the planet as everyone else (they’d ending up staying for a few days, so Lance’s belongings were a little more spread out than usual), but that didn’t stop him from being suspicious of her.

The truth became completely apparent when Allura forwent her attempt at subtly. It was when Lance was trying to persuade Kaltenecker back onto the Red lion that she assaulted him.

“Come on, boy,” Lance pleaded, tugging on Kaltenecker’s rope and only growing more frustrated as he mooed uncaringly at him.

“Aren’t all cows girls?” Pidge had said the other day, after Lance had affectionately referred to Kaltenecker being the best boy on the planet. He couldn’t help being in love with the cow, okay? Though he definitely loved him a bit more when he actually went onto the red lion like he was told to.

Lance had scoffed. “Kaltenecker doesn’t subscribe to the gender binary, _Pidge_ ,” he’d huffed, patting the cow on the cheek. “Isn’t that right Kaltenecker? Who’s a good boy!”

Now, while Kaltenecker was being a very _bad_  boy, Allura made her presence known. She cleared her throat behind Lance, surprising him and making him jump a good few feet in the air.

“Hello, Lance,” she said, trying for casual and landing on the far side of _completely obvious._

“Allura,” Lance said warily.

Allura just grinned at him, tilting her head a bit like that would suffice to make Lance spill every gooey and gritty thought he had about Keith. “So…” Allura continued, when her head tilt plan didn’t have Lance collapsing to his knees at her feet and balling, _‘I’m so in love with Keith!’_  “Anything you’d like to talk about?”

“I fucking hate Pidge,” Lance announced, and Allura’s eyes momentarily widened before her _I’m suuuper casual_  expression faltered and became normal again.

“Come on, Lance!” she begged. “Who better to gossip with than me?! I’d love to talk boys --”

“Quiet down!” Lance hissed, glancing every which way just in case Keith was nearby. He wasn’t.

Still, he couldn’t deny that he liked this wanting-to-gossip Allura more than the one he’d been faced with more recently. He’d had feelings for her in Keith’s absence, and he’d been starting to get the strangest feeling that she’d _known_ , as if that wasn’t a horrible thought. Lance was over her now, though, and Allura clearly wanted in on his love life.

“I don’t know what you’d even want me to talk about,” Lance added, feeling his cheeks go pink at the admittance. What, was he supposed to talk about how soft Keith’s hair was? How cute his Galra ears were, with the way they twitched whenever Lance brushed them (given that they were actually present, of course). Was he supposed to confess how even just being with Keith somehow made him feel a hundred times happier, how making him laugh making his insides go warm?

Yeah, Lance didn’t think so.

“Oh, you’ll _want_  to spill everything, trust me,” Allura assured him, grinning widely again. “We can have a little spa night and you can talk all about how you —”

Just then, Keith emerged from Black’s maw, which was totally in hearing distance, probably. Black was parked next to Red, anyway.

Lance interrupted Allura loudly with, “YEAH THANKS,” and pulled her into an emergency shut-the-fuck-up hug before pushing her away again. Allura was smiling at him horribly knowingly, and despite knowing he was probably making matters worse…. Well, Keith was there.

“Hey Keith!” he called, and then he was jogging off in Keith’s direction before Keith could even turn his head, leaving Allura standing there watching with much too much interest.

 

> **iv. shiro**

Considering how straight-forward Shiro was, Lance didn’t even have it in him to be surprised when he came to talk to him the next time they landed. He definitely wasn’t as speedy as Hunk had been with apologizing to Lance, but actually stepping forward and apologizing was exactly the kind of thing that fit the bill for Shiro.

“Lance, could I talk to you for a second?” he said, the next time they landed on a friendly planet, one that Coran had recognized from when he’d been in a marmisk-flying tournament, which none of them had questioned him about. Keith and Lance had speculated that a marmisk was some kind of animal, simply because it was more fun to imagine it that way.

“Yeah,” Lance said, stepping to the side instead of entering the dining hall with the rest of the team. He and Keith had been in the middle of a hot debate over how old Keith actually was ( _”I was on a space whale for two years!” “Yeah, but when we get back to Earth, you’ll still only be twenty, tops.”_ ) but that clearly was going to be a conversation that would have to wait.

“I just wanted to apologize,” Shiro said now, leaning one shoulder against the wall and folding his arms. “For the way I’d treated you.”

“Shiro, that’s not fair,” Lance said immediately. “You were a clone.”

Shiro took on a pained expression. “I can remember everything, though,” he said, which was the aftermath of putting the real Shiro in a body that had another Shiro’s memories. “It… feels like it was me. And… it _acted_  like me, a lot of the time. I — _it_ … thought it _was_  me.”

“Still,” Lance said, shrugging. “I’ve never held any of that against you. You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Just let me say sorry and hug you, Lance,” Shiro said, taking on his old black paladin voice for a moment, and Lance laughed as he stepped forward into Shiro’s arms. The next moment, they were joining the rest of their team in the dining hall, both feeling particularly lighter because of it.

 

 

> **v. keith**

The dining hall was already alight with laughter and conversation, and Lance noticed Keith look up when he and Shiro entered the room, gesturing to the chair he’d saved beside him. Lance had a brief moment of panic, wondering whether he’d saved it for him or his brother, when Shiro said, “It’s all yours,” and continued around the table to sit next to Allura. Lance’s eyebrows scrunched together, and he found himself wondering if Shiro, too, knew that he liked Keith. Did _everyone_  know? Did Keith?!

He pushed his troubled thoughts aside, however, and sat down next to Keith, who flashed him a brief smile before the Emperor of planet Taiki was talking.

“Paladins!” he said, in that constantly booming voice of his. “Companions! Welcome, welcome -- I couldn’t be happier to have you here!”

“Thank you for having us,” Allura said, leaning forward to look at the Emperor as she spoke.

“Please, it is my pleasure,” he assured her. “As a thank you for joining us here tonight, I was hoping my people could offer a gift,” he continued. The paladins exchanged glances, mostly wary ones, because they’d received a lot of “gifts” in their time as paladins. There were many different cultures, many different histories, and many, _many_  different meanings of what exactly a gift entailed. Lance just didn’t understand how some people went around calling truly atrocious things “gifts”.

“We’d be honored,” Allura said, because that was what you had to say when you were being offered a gift. The Emperor smiled, delighted.

“Wonderful!” he said. “The harvesting season of our planet’s native fruit, _Zrhetixs_ , has just finished. They sell for hundreds in our local markets, but I saved one for someone of your crew. Perhaps you, princess?” He held up a fruit the size of a blueberry. They all stared at it warily — having something offered to just one of them, and the princess, to boot, didn’t exactly bode well.

“Er — what does it do?” Allura asked. Lance couldn’t help but wonder the same thing. Why would anyone pay hundreds for a blueberry?

“The _Zrhetixs_  have magical properties. They show you a vision of your near future,” the Emperor went on to explain. Allura brightened.

“In that case, I think I know exactly who deserves it.”

Lance, sitting in his chair and waiting to see one of his teammates experience a glimpse of their future, was surprised when Allura continued with, “Lance!”

“What?” Lance said, because maybe he’d zoned out when Allura had chosen another paladin, and he was the only one not clapping and congratulating them.

“Just recently we became aware of how sorely you deserve some more appreciation in your life. I think you ought to have the chance to see your future.” Besides just her words, Allura’s eyes were sparkling with some kind of mischief, as if she could have inclination of what was going to happen in his future.

“Um,” Lance said, but then there came a chorus of agreements, everyone looking excited on his behalf, and the not-a-blueberry was passed down the table on a plate. It was pushed in front of him, a servant holding out a fork for Lance to take, and Lance had to resist the urge to snort at the idea of eating this tiny little fruit with a _fork_.

“Whenever you’re ready,” the Emperor said grandly, and all around the room servants looked on enviously, watching as Lance ceremoniously speared the blueberry on the fork and raised it up to his lips.

“Here goes nothing,” he said before putting it in his mouth. Flavor exploded across his tongue the second he bit into it, the tiny little fruit compacting way more juice than seemed possible, and a feeling of dizziness overcame Lance immediately despite the fact he was sitting.

“Just lean back and let it show you,” the Emperor encouraged, and Lance followed his instructions, his eyes roving around the room as sweat dotted his forehead, feeling like everything was rushing around him.

“Is he okay? Is this normal?” someone beside Lance demanded impatiently.

“Oh yes, quite so,” another answered. “He’ll be Seeing any moment now.”

Lance was breathing heavily. Images seemed to be floating in front of his eyes, changing and reforming every time he blinked. He looked over to the person beside him, finding himself staring at Keith. God, he was always staring at Keith.

Keith’s eyebrows were pinched together, his mouth downturned, and Lance watched it open to say something but didn’t hear the words that came out of his mouth. Lance blinked, and the entire background changed, but Keith remained. Keith was a constant.

This time, when Keith spoke, Lance could hear him.

_“Okay,” Keith said, a breath shuddering out of him as he placed his hands stiffly on his knees._

_Lance felt the grin on his own lips. He couldn’t help it. He was excited. “You ready?” he asked, and Keith nodded jerkily, licking his lips._

_“As I’ll ever be,” he muttered. And then Lance stepped in between his legs, reaching out and cupping Keith’s face. His heart was pounding, but he ignored it as he leaned in._

_“Relax,” he whispered, practically against Keith’s lips, and then he was closing the gap completely, swallowing down the tiny gasp Keith let out and pressing against him firmer, his hand sliding from his cheek into his hair._

“—out of it,” someone said, sharp and jarring and Lance’s eyes were flying open, the images and sound and atmosphere spiralling away from him and disappearing, leaving him staring at Keith, his eyebrows still furrowed as he stared at Lance. “Can you hear me, Lance?”

Lance gasped, his face flooding with heat as he realized what he’d just seen and who he was now talking to. “Y-Yeah,” he said hastily, eyes darting around the table, but no one gave any indication of being privy to the same knowledge he was.

“How was it?” Pidge demanded immediately from across the table. “ _What_  was it?”

“I—” Lance panicked. How was he supposed to explain he’d been kissing Keith? He couldn’t! He could hardly believe it, for one thing, but what if announcing it changed his future? He couldn’t have _that_! Not when this was the very thing he’d wanted oh-so-desperately to happen to him! He and Keith were going to kiss — and soon! Finally, Lance said indignantly, “It’s my future. It’s private.”

“ _What_?!” Pidge squawked, mortally offended, and voices bursted out with complaints all around him, everyone obviously having wanted to know exactly what he’d seen.

“You said they sell those in the markets, didn’t you?” Lance said abruptly, turning to the Emperor desperately. Suddenly, he knew he needed to eat another one of those berry things. Needed to see more, know more. Was that their first kiss? Their fifth? Their hundredth?

“They do,” the Emperor said slowly, “But I wouldn’t recommend purchasing any. One reason they’re so expensive is to dissuade our people from purchasing them. Knowledge, and knowledge of the future, in particular, is addictive.”

“I’m not addicted!” Lance protested immediately. “I just want one more, I swear!”

Across from him, Pidge chuckled. “Guess you saw something good then, huh?”

“Shut up, Pidge!” Lance said, flushing.

The conversation turned as the servants brought out platters stacked high with food, and with everyone busy talking, Keith bumped Lance with his elbow. “You’re not even going to tell me?” he asked, almost jokingly.

_You’re not even going to tell me?_

Lance’s eyes were wide, his mind spinning, his brain very possibly melting into goop. That very statement implied they were something more. Closer than the others. Like of course Lance wasn’t going to tell Pidge, it was personal, but not too personal for Keith to know. Not too personal for Keith, who stood up for Lance and cuddled with him at night and let him play with his ears.

Keith, who Lance was going to _kiss one day_.

“Not yet,” Lance said. “But I’ll tell you one day, okay?”

Keith squinted at him suspiciously, but he shrugged. “Fine,” he said. “But I’m not letting you buy any more of those berry things. You’ve been saving up for something good, I can tell.”

Lance blinked. Keith had noticed that he didn’t really buy things anymore?

“Guests!” the emperor boomed, drawing their attention right back to him. “Please, enjoy! This is a traditional meal of my people, prepared specially for you.”

Usually when Lance heard the words “traditional meal” from any alien, he prepared himself to suffer through the most disgusting meal of his life. Today, he found himself actually enjoying the food, which was a pleasant change.

By the time they were finished eating, having had seconds and thirds pushed on them, which made Lance feel suddenly and fiercely homesick, much too used to the overfeeding treatment, they were dismissed to practically roll to their bedrooms. They were escorted through the halls by the same aliens that had served them dinner, and they were eventually deposited into a corner of the castle that led way into a lounge, which had several bedrooms branching off of it.

Left to their own devices, many of them lingered in the common room for a while, just relaxing and chatting happily, but soon enough they began to trickle off to bed, tired after being fed such a big meal.

Lance, Keith, and Hunk were the last three to go to bed, and after Hunk disappeared into his room, Lance and Keith remained leaning against the wall between the doors to their own rooms, which were directly next to each other.

“How do you feel about braids?” Lance was saying, because they’d been arguing about hair for the last half hour and Lance wasn’t good at letting things go.

Keith had been trying to convince Lance to grow his hair out, an odd look in his eye as he did, but Lance had flat out refused. “I’d look horrible with long hair,” he’d said, shaking his head.

“I’m not so sure,” Keith had argued, that faraway look still in his eye. Lance had snapped him out of it by suggesting Keith cut his hair, for once, which Keith had vehemently refused to do, claiming he didn’t have the face for it. As if anyone could _not_  have the face for short hair!

“Braids?” Keith said now, incredulously, and Lance nodded excitedly.

“Yeah! If you’re never gonna cut it, the least you can do is let me braid it.” He’d meant to say ‘someone’, but ‘me’ had slipped out instead. He wasn’t gonna lie — he’d very much enjoy the chance to get his fingers in that hair again.

“Maybe,” Keith said, although it sounded much more like a _no way in hell_. Somehow, this only made Lance feel even more determined to braid his hair someday. Someday soon.

Then Keith yawned, and Lance was forced to admit to himself that it was truly time to sleep.

“I’m gonna head to bed,” he said, and Keith blinked his eyes open at Lance.

“Sounds good,” he agreed sleepily.

Lance’s foot bounced against the floor, and his fingers twisted together in front of him anxiously, and then he was just doing it, stepping forward and pulling Keith into a hug unexpectedly. Keith clearly had had no reason to anticipate it, but instead of stiffening in his arms like Lance had been expecting, he relaxed, seeming to melt against Lance’s body and hug him even tighter.

Lance soaked it up for as long as he could claim it still felt normal, and then he was pulling away.

“What was that for?” Keith asked, and Lance was left scrambling for an answer, because he didn’t really know. He’d just wanted it. Wanted to have Keith in his arms.

“Just… for being a good friend,” Lance said, feeling his cheeks grow warm. “Goodnight!” With that, he was spinning around and disappearing into his room, slamming his door behind him and trying to leave his embarrassment in the common room with Keith.

There was a moment of silence, during which Lance leaned against the door and stared wide-eyed into his room, realizing that one day soon, he was going to _kiss_  that boy.

And then: “Goodnight Lance,” from directly behind the door, and Lance’s head thumped back against it, unable to believe any of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lance: is told the name of the fruit  
> lance: blueberry


	10. day ten: watching the other sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith remembers some of his own visions from the future.

It took Keith a while to fall asleep that night.

He wasn’t trying to stay awake, but he couldn’t help it. Even after getting ready for bed, brushing his teeth and using one of the weird face washes Lance had pushed on him and even going so far as to change into pajamas, he couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t that he wasn’t tired, because he _was_ , it was that his mind was still too busy, spinning at a mile a second, replaying moments from the night and posing questions he was forced to ponder as he laid there in bed.

For example, _what had Lance seen_? Keith hadn’t spared any emotion feeling jealous when Lance had been handed the _Zrhetixs_ , having seen enough of his future to last him a lifetime, thank you very much. It’d already done enough to make him feel confused and wary and the most tentative bit hopeful, so he’d gladly watched as Lance had lifted the fruit to his mouth, already excited to hear about whatever visions he saw. Ideas flashed through his mind, of Lance being on Earth with his family, of battles with the Galra, of planets he might one day find himself on. Treacherously, a part of his mind had insistently presented the idea of him being in Lance’s future, but Keith had shut it down. He’d seen similar things himself, sure, but he didn’t exactly trust some cosmic time magic to accurately tell his future.

For a second after Lance had eaten the berry, Keith had thought he’d been poisoned. His pupils had immediately blown wide, and he’d started breathing shallowly, slumping in his seat as his eyes had darted around. Keith vaguely remembered demanding if he was all right, but what’d really stuck in his memory was the way Lance’s gaze had trained on him. It’d stopped darting to and fro, and his mouth had gone slack as he’d stared and stared and stared at Keith, not blinking the whole time.

But then he had blinked, once, twice, and his eyebrows had furrowed as if he was confused. “I think he’s coming out of it,” Keith had said, watching as Lance’s mouth had shut, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. “Can you hear me, Lance?”

Lance had gasped, his eyes filled with sudden clarity, but what had been most surprising was the way his face had gone all red. Keith had always thought it was pretty hard to make Lance blush, considering his darker complexion.

Except now, it wasn’t even thoughts of Lance and the vision he’d had or why he hadn’t told anyone or how he’d promised to tell Keith _one day_  keeping him awake. It was like the knowledge that Lance had seen his future had opened up the floodgates of Keith’s memory, bringing back all the scenes and images he’d been privy to in the time rift despite the fact that he’d tried to lock them all away, to ignore and forget about them.

Except they didn’t want to be ignored or forgotten.

Every time Keith so much as closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep, images flitted across his eyelids, voices spoke in his ears. It was agonizing.

_”Don’t go,” Lance’s voice, older but insistently familiar, whined. He was stretched out comfortably underneath fluffy, white sheets, and his hand was outstretched invitingly towards Keith. The room looked familiar, like one from the castle, but still somehow different._

_“You know I have to,” Keith laughed, his back turned to Lance as he stood before an open closet, stripping and redressing quickly and efficiently._

_“Nooo,” Lance whined further. And then, his voice suddenly deeper, sultrier, “I’ll make it worth your while.”_

_Keith stiffened, and he seemed unable to help turning around to look at Lance, who was now stretched out on the bed a little more artfully, the majority of his body exposed except for where the duvet remained, spread almost artfully over his crotch. A scar decorated his chest, matching the one that cut across his face._

_Obviously torn, but seeming somewhat resigned, Keith’s eyes darted towards the door. “I’ll be late,” he hedged, sounding as if he wished to be persuaded to go._

_“The Algarian Ambassador’s a bastard, anyway,” Lance said, sliding his legs under the sheets so that the blankets slid off him even more. Completely unapologetic, he said, “Oops.”_

_“God dammit,” Keith said, yanking his dress shirt out of his pants as he crossed towards the bed. “I hate you.”_

Keith’s eyes shot back open, and he turned in the other direction, face flushed, as he tried to clear his head and go to sleep.

_Keith and Lance, back to back, moving so quickly and expertly it was hard to take it._

_”Fuck!” Lance cried out, his body jolting behind Keith’s as a lazer struck him right in the midriff. His armor looked different, harboring more scratches and dents than usual. Keith’s, too._

_“Lance!” Keith yelled in response, but Lance just grunted, his bayard glowing as it shifted from his gun to his sword before he slashed it through all the sentries in front of him._

_“I’m fine, don’t worry,” he insisted, and Keith kept fighting the seemingly endless hoard of Galra drones and soldiers surrounding them._

Keith sucked in a breath, curling up tighter.

_”Stay still,” Lance said gruffly, his eyebrows pinched together as his tongue poked between his teeth in concentration. His hair was pulled back into the bun he seemed to favor._

_“I am,” Keith snapped back, leaning against his lion with his head tilted towards the sky, his jaw clenched and his eyes closed. Lance was picking shards of glass out of his chest._

_Lance reached forward with tweezers, pulling out what looked to be the last shard of glass, and Keith breathed out loudly through his nose, his body relaxing. Lance sighed happily as he set the glass in a pile of similar bloody pieces beside Keith’s knee._

_“See? Told you you could do it,” Lance said happily, dusting his hands off together before leaning forward to peck Keith on the mouth. He then sat back down, having been using Keith’s lap as a chair, and pulled a first-aid kit from one of their lions into his lap. “And now you get to sit still through the spray.”_

_Keith groaned, his lip pouting out in a distinctly un-Keith-like way. “It’ll sting,” he whined, his hands coming up to rest on the sides of Lance’s thighs, his thumbs brushing over his knees. “Can’t we just bandage it?”_

_Lance scoffed. “And risk you getting infected while we wait for pick-up? I don’t think so. Sit still.”_

It was some time after that when Keith finally drifted to sleep, though he woke up feeling sure he’d dreamt along the same lines, despite not being able to really remember any of it. When he left his room to instead sit in the common room provided to them, it was only to find Lance already sitting there, a worn book open in his lap.

“Keith, you’re awake,” Lance said, sounding surprised as he looked up from his book. “Is it that late already?”

“Did you not sleep?”

“Nah,” Lance said with a shrug. “Thinking too much, you know?”

“Yeah,” Keith agreed, knowing all too well, and plopped down next to Lance on the couch. Lance resumed reading his book, and Keith scrolled on his tablet, but he could hardly concentrate, entirely too aware of the way their shoulders pressed against each other.

\--

It’d taken them a while to actually get off the planet, due to the way the Emperor and all his citizens had wanted to thank them a thousand times, insisting on throwing a parade for them to walk through as they returned to their lions. Lance had been yawning by the time they’d stepped out the great castle’s front doors, which he’d hid guiltily behind his hand, fretting about how he must look so rude, walking through their parade like that.

“It’s not rude,” Keith had said. “Everyone yawns.”

“Not during _parades_ ,” Lance had insisted anxiously.

Keith was just glad to be back in space again, making headway and marching all the more closer to Earth. Everyone’s comms were open and they were playing a game Lance had taught them, wherein they went to a picnic and could only bring an item if it matched the category of whoever’s turn it was. It’d taken far too long for Keith to get the hang of it, and still he grew overly frustrated whenever he was stumped.

It was his turn now, meaning he’d created the category, and he was only letting people come to his picnic if they brought something with double letters.

“I’m bringiiing…” Pidge said, humming as she thought. “An elephant.”

“Nope,” Keith said, grinning as she let out a sound bordering on a roar. She may be a genius, but her brain tended to do better with things that made immediate sense, like numbers and codes.

“ _You’re_  bringing a hippo, and Hunk’s bringing a fucking cliff—”

“Language,” Shiro chimed in from the back of Keith’s lion, which Pidge ignored.

“Your category sucks,” Pidge huffed.

“You’re just mad ‘cause it’s a good one,” Keith said proudly, and Pidge clicked her tongue in irritation.

“Whatever,” she said. “Lance’s turn.”

The comm link fell silent, and Lance didn’t answer. Now that Keith thought about, Lance hadn’t spoken for a long time, hadn’t laughed or made any witty commentary.

“Lance?” Pidge repeated. “It’s your turn. Hurry up so I can figure out what Keith’s stupid category is.”

Lance still didn’t answer, and with a theory in mind, Keith opened a video link to the red lion.

Immediately, an image of Lance popped up onto the screen. He was leaned back in his chair, his head at what looked like a painful angle while his arms rested on the armrests, as if they’d fallen there from the levers. His eyes were closed, his mouth hanging open as his feet remained stretched out on the dashboard, which was definitely not the proper way to fly their lions. Beside Lance’s foot, a button was flashing, signalling it was turned on: auto-pilot.

Keith’s mouth quirked up in a smile, his expression probably completely dopey as Lance’s head dropped another inch to the left, a lock of hair falling down his forehead and dangling in front of his face, brushing against his nose, which twitched. God, Keith could watch Lance sleep for hours. He was adorable, his face and body language completely relaxed, not hidden behind cocky facades or loud gestures. He looked smaller than he was, and a good kind of vulnerable.

“Lance!” Pidge said again, practically shouted, and Lance jerked awake, his foot kicking some random lever as he scrambled to sit upright, gripping onto the levers and blinking sleep out of his eyes as he stared around in confusion, probably looking for enemies.

“What?!” he said, in that kind of defensive kind of tone you used when you were caught sleeping.

“It’s your turn, doofus,” Pidge said, oblivious to what was happening. Lance blinked again, reaching up to rub his eyes, and it wasn’t until his hands fell back into his lap that he noticed Keith on the screen before him.

Lance flushed, his eyes widening as he realized he’d been caught sleeping. He shoved a hand into his hair, scratching the back of his neck as he squinted out the screens before him, his gaze continually flicking back to Keith, who just smiled knowingly.

“Sorry,” Lance said. “My turn for… what?”

“The picnic!” Pidge snapped. “Keith’s bringing a hippo and Hunk’s bringing a cliff!”

Lance nodded. Hummed. “Okay,” he said. “I’m bringing a carcass.”

Keith grinned. Lance was way too good at this game. “You can come,” he affirmed.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Pidge yelled, and Keith dissolved into giggles, finding Lance staring at him when he looked back up.


	11. day eleven: drawing each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance plays in the rain.

“I’m familiar with the next few planets we’ll be passing,” Coran said, his voice broadcasting from the Blue lion. “We could go to Yrenzl, a planet known for their ability to talk only in rhymes—”

“Oooh, that sounds fun,” Hunk interjected.

“I think it sounds dumb,” said Lance.

“Don’t fall on your bum!” Coran added excitedly.

Exasperate, Keith said, “All right, can we be done?”

“If rhyming isn’t for you, Keith, we could go to Zexitis, often nicknamed the Land of the Dead.”

“Nope, nope, no thank you,” Hunk said quickly.

“Our last option is the Hibrixus planet, known as the planet of rain. It’s never not raining on this drowsy planet—”

“ _That one_!” Lance exclaimed. “That one, please! Keith? Can we please go to that one?”

Keith ignored how flustered he felt all of the sudden, clearing his throat to say, “Yeah. I think that sounds like the best one. Everyone?”

“I hate rain,” Pidge grumbled, but there was no further complaint, and so they set their course for Hibrixus, only another hour’s flight away.

The excitement in Lance’s voice was tangible with every comment he made over the next hour, and by the time Hibrixus came into view, swathed in clouds, Lance’s lion was the first to dive through them. Everyone else followed suit, landing around him. They’d never flown their lions in rain before, and hearing the downpour on the metal all around them was deafening, but kind of in a good way.

By the time Keith emerged from his lion, Lance was already out of his, his legs covered in splatters of mud, seeing as he’d sprinted across the wet ground. Some Hibrixus officiary was talking to Lance, though Lance seemed thoroughly distracted, his entire body practically vibrating with excitement. Keith had never realized he liked rain so much.

He was quick to join Lance, wanting to know what exactly was being told to him. The alien was dressed in an oversized raincoat and big rubber boots, and their words seemed to be sloughing off of Lance as much as the rain was. “—have rooms prepared, of course, and we’re ever thankful to be able to host Voltron here on Hibrixus—”

“Thank you for having us,” Keith interjected, and the alien turned to face him, looking relieved to talk to someone who was actually paying attention to him. The rest of the team was quick to join them, fanning out in a half-circle around the alien.

“If you’ll just follow me, I can show you all back to where you’ll be staying. I’m sure you want to get out of the rain,” they said. It was apparent that this wasn’t true for Lance, who made a small noise of protest in the back of his throat, but he didn’t argue as they followed the alien to a large vehicle, which they all boarded.

They drove along roads with little scenery at first, but they soon came to a city, where it was clear that, like Lance, not everyone minded the rain. The majority of the Hibirixans forewent the coat and boots that their escort was wearing, instead wearing what looked to be their more traditional kind of outfit. They’d cleary adapted as a species to their constant rain, as their skin seemed almost glass-textured, and their eyebrows protruded further over their face, probably to keep the rain out of their eyes.

Lance couldn’t sit still, his nose practically glued to the window as his knees bounced at hyperspeed in front of him.

“Excited?” Keith commented, ignoring the other chatter going on in the car. Lance’s head whipped away from the window in surprise, his eyes glazed over before they focused on Keith.

“Yeah,” he breathed, his face breaking into a smile. “I’ve been waiting to see rain again _forever_.”

“I remember rain,” Krolia spoke up from Keith’s other side, and Lance leaned past Keith to look at her.

“Yeah?”

“It rarely rained, where my love and I lived, but when it did, it was a _downpour_ ,” she said fondly, her eyes taking on a faraway look as she remembered. Keith felt his own mouth twist into a smile. His father had always loved the rain, but now he wondered if it was because of Krolia, if he’d always thought about her and how excited she’d been every time the skies opened up.

“That’s the desert for ya,” Lance said happily. “It doesn’t rain nearly enough, but when it _does_ , it’s like it’s apologizing for all the months it didn’t.”

“It was amazing,” Krolia sighed nostalgically. “Although, when Keith was a baby, he didn’t like it. He cried when I tried to take him out in the rain with me.”

“ _Aww_ ,” Lance cooed.

“ _Mom_ ,” Keith protested, a gut reaction kind of thing, and then he blinked in surprise. He’d never called her that before. Glancing over at her now, it was apparent that she was thinking the same thing, though the smile that crept across her face because of it was blinding.

“You fussed about a lot of things,” Krolia continued happily. “Changing your clothes, changing your diaper. Eating any baby food that wasn’t fruit flavored.”

“I would pay anything to see Keith as a baby,” Lance laughed, and Keith elbowed him in the gut, though none-too-harshly. Lance elbowed him back, even softer than Keith had.

“Did you know I almost named him Yorak?”

“ _Did you really_?” Lance said, his voice feigning interest that could only fool a mom, his tone otherwise making it apparent that Keith was going to have to suffer through all kinds of teasing later.

“Look! We’re here!” Keith hastily interrupted, thrusting a finger forward to point out the window as they slowed to a stop. The building before them had a large banner hanging from it, decorated with depictions of the five lions.

Their escort unlocked the building, pressing the key into Allura’s hand as he gestured grandly inside. It was a building just for them, they explained, decked out with a kitchen, living room, bedrooms, and several large bathrooms, each accompanied with tubs, Lance made sure to ask. They all stood in the entrance in awe, looking around the place.

“Can we rest here for a couple of days?” Lance breathed, saying what they were all thinking. The last few days they’d flown non-stop, having breached a Galra-monitored area and having wanted to get out of it as fast as possible. There wasn’t much they could do about the Galra currently, seeing as they didn’t have any of the castle’s systems or tech. There was no way to get intel, no way to figure out what they could be facing. Their best bet was to just get back to Earth before rejoining the war effort.

“I think that’d be a good idea,” Allura agreed, obviously as in love with the luxury awarded to them as Lance was.

Their alien escort left them to it, and they were left to their own devices to explore the space provided to them. Keith ended up trailing after Lance automatically, following at a more sedated pace as he bounced off the walls with excitement.

“Wow! Look at the bedrooms!” he crowed, throwing a door open and turning back to look at Keith excitedly. Keith peered past him, eyes widening as he took in the room before them.

One wall was completely glass, currently fogged over due to the humidity outside. There was a giant bed in the middle of the room, the sheets pristine with a corner of the duvet folded back invitingly, and several candles were lit around the room, making it smell sweet but not overbearingly so.

“This is awesome,” Lance said reverently, striding through the room and dropping his overnight bag by the foot of the bed. He did this fluently, not stopping as he continued to cross the room, stepping into the bathroom. “Keith! The bathroom’s are _huge_!” he shouted, his voice echoing from inside it. Keith didn’t get a chance to follow him, though, because Lance was racing back out immediately and yanking his helmet off his head, tossing it onto the bed with no regard for the fact that it was covered in water.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked, as Lance grunted as he began unstrapping the rest of his armor, tossing some parts of it onto the bed and letting other parts drop directly onto the floor.

“Changing,” Lance huffed, distracted. Uncaring for Keith’s presence in the room, he went right ahead and starting unzipping his undersuit, making Keith blush bright red and avert his gaze as Lance ducked down, yanking his clothes out of his bag and pulling them on instead. “I’m gonna go outside.”

“Don’t you want your paladin armor then?” Keith said incredulously, watching as Lance kicked his bag aside, now dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, foregoing shoes entirely.

“Nah,” Lance said. “That’s waterproof. I wanna feel the rain on my skin. You coming?”

The last part was added almost as an afterthought, but his eyes still brightened as he looked at Keith expectantly. Keith still didn’t get the big deal though. Still didn’t understand the appeal of standing in the rain and getting wet and uncomfortable. Maybe he really was the same baby his mom had known so long ago.

“Your clothes are gonna get wet,” he said in lieu of answering, and Lance scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“I saw robes in the bathroom for us,” he answered, and then, evidently bored of waiting for Keith to come up with a response, he turned to leave. There was a door inset into the glass wall, so Lance headed straight for that, pushing it open and stepping directly into the rain, his face tilted up to the sky, his eyes closed.

The door didn’t swing shut immediately, so Keith was privy to that image for a few seconds, allowed to watch as Lance’s clothes slowly grew darker with water, as he held his hands out in front of him and caught the rain on his fingers, as he grinned up at the sky, the sound of a giggle escaping from his mouth over the downpour.

And then the door was clicking shut and all Keith could see was Lance’s image made blurry by the condensation on the windows. He just continued to stand there for a few moments longer, before he was suddenly rushing towards the glass window, and his face appeared as his hand rubbed the condensation off the glass. He gestured Keith forward.

Unable to keep the smile off his face, Keith stepped closer to Lance, who was grinning, standing outside and drenched in rain. Keith couldn’t stop staring at him, couldn’t stop taking in every inch of his face. Water droplets clung to his eyelashes, rushing down his cheeks like tears when he blinked, though his smile offset the idea of him crying immediately.

His expression shifted, changing from complete and unfiltered happiness to a familiar cocky one, his eyebrows raising as he held up one finger, the universal sign for _wait_ , and then he was drawing in the condensation.

What he was drawing became immediately obvious. If the exaggerated downturned eyebrows and frowny mouth didn’t give it away, then the condensation mullet definitely did, and Lance’s face was popping back into view to smile at Keith, looking way too proud of himself.

Keith just crossed his arms, looking between the drawing and Lance before he did his best imitation of it. His best must’ve been good, because Lance threw his head back and laughed, the long column of his throat exposed and glistening with water before he looked back at Keith, grinning widely and holding up that finger again.

This time, the drawing appeared a little further down the window, and Keith stepped to the side to watch it be drawn, parts of Lance’s face becoming exposed as he traced lines through the condensation, revealing his concentrated eyes and his tongue poking between his teeth.

Lance’s artistic skills were definitely questionable, but they were at least good enough for Keith to understand what he was drawing. It was another Keith, but this time he was a baby, made clear by the fact that he was wailing and shaped similarly to a potato (hopefully just swaddled, not limbless). Above him, written slowly and carefully so that it was going in the right direction, was a speech bubble, filled with: _WAAAHHHHH!!!!!._  Keith thought it was finished, but then Lance was adding something else underneath. He labeled it _Yorak_  and drew a bunch of hearts around the name.

Beside the baby Keith, Lance’s hand made a new window, and his face appeared looking entirely too proud of himself. Keith couldn’t help grinning this time, shaking his head in amusement as Lance giggled to himself.

Then, Lance gestured a _come hither_  motion, and Keith pursed his lips, shaking his head just to be difficult. Lance’s mouth dropped open in offense before he put his hands together in front of his face, shaking them desperately as he pouted at Keith, pulling out his killer puppy dog eyes.

Keith shook his head again.

Lance glared, and with determination, he reached up and drew a dick right above their condensation window.

Keith gaped at him.

Lance, ignoring him, drew another, and another, and another—

Keith turned and yanked open the glass door, racing over to Lance and shoving him before he could defile their temporary home with anymore phalluses. Lance cackled, trying to reach past Keith to continue his artistic prowess, but Keith smacked his hands out of the way, smearing the ones he’d already drawn as he did.

Seeing as he was unwilling to stop, Keith was forced to grab Lance’s hands and pin them against the window behind him, laughing triumphantly as Lance struggled fruitlessly against him.

“Fine!” he gasped. “Fine, I give!”

“Good,” Keith said happily, and he dropped Lance’s hands.

Lance took one look at him before saying, “You need to take off your helmet.”

“Why?”

“It’s more fun that way, I promise,” Lance said, and then he was stepping close and yanking Keith’s helmet off for him. Immediately, his hair was soaked, as if he’d stepped under the spray of a shower. It was also less loud, the rain no longer pounding on his helmet and amplifying in his ears.

“It’s nice, right?” Lance asked, smiling so big and looking at Keith so expectantly that his only option was to nod yes. “Close your eyes,” Lance instructed. “Just — tilt your head back. It feels good.”

Keith appeased Lance, because he was so far gone at this point he’d do anything to make him happy, but he was only allowed to remain like that for a few seconds before Lance was suddenly grabbing his hand, making his eyes fly open and his head jerk down so he could look at him.

“Let’s go jump in puddles!” Lance demanded, already tugging on Keith. “I saw rivers running along the curbs, we can start there,” he said over his shoulder, busy pulling Keith through the yard and towards the street.

Keith was forced to attempt to rearrange his face into something that wasn’t absolutely love-struck by the next time Lance looked back at him, and honestly, it was one of the hardest things he ever tried to do.


	12. day twelve: having a lazy day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance teaches Keith how to relax.

Lance woke up knowing it was going to be a day of pampered relaxation.

He’d known he was going to have to have one after seeing how amazing their very temporary home was, and nothing sounded better than getting his chill on to the sound of rain pounding on the roof above him.

The previous day had been amazing, getting to finally feel rain again and getting to play in it. He was pretty sure he’d even gotten Keith to enjoy it, despite the fact that he hadn’t looked too excited about the idea of going outside and getting wet. By the time they’d ventured back inside, it’d been hours later, and Lance had only managed to shower before he’d fallen into bed, wonderfully exhausted.

Now, he yawned and stretched as he made his way to the kitchen. If it were truly going to be a day of relaxation, he’d have to kick it off with a nice breakfast, and maybe a good juice or something to go with it.

There were tiny pastries arranged on a cooling rack in the kitchen, evidence that Hunk was also awake and getting his chill on, and Lance picked one up and popped it into his mouth with a hum as he opened the fridge, examining the foreign contents for anything that looked like juice. He went for the safest bet — anything orange couldn’t _not_  be orange juice, right? — and poured himself a tall glass. He’d just raised it to his lips for a sip when he found himself distracted by the sound of a grunt from the next room over.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, his glass drifting away from his mouth as he followed the sound. He stepped into the living room and was treated to a truly horrific sight.

Keith. _Working out_.

Sure, he looked good (and did he really have any business being shirtless and _that_  built at whatever o’clock in the morning?) but that wasn’t the point. Lance couldn’t help but feel offended as he continued to watch Keith doing sit ups, huffing out breaths and grunts every time he was in the upright position.

“Um, what are you doing?!” Lance demanded loudly, making Keith curse, a hand flying out behind him to prop him up as he turned his head to look at Lance.

“Fuck, you scared me,” he said. And then, “Working out. What does it look like?”

“Exactly that!” Lance said indignantly. Keith took a moment to just look at him in confusion. “It’s our first day off in forever!” Lance continued, despite the fact that he felt where he was going was obvious. “And you’re using it to _work out_? You should be relaxing!”

“Working out is relaxing,” Keith claimed. “You feel sore all over afterwards. And accomplished.”

“Your definition of relaxation needs a lot of work,” Lance said sadly, shaking his head at Keith. “Come on. I’ll teach you.”

“Teach me,” Keith repeated, deadpan.

“Yes,” Lance said. “You obviously need a teacher in this trying time. You’re just lucky I volunteered.”

“Right,” Keith said blandly, and he didn’t get to his feet until Lance came over and started kicking his butt, forcing him to stand. His shirt was nowhere to be found, but he didn’t say anything about it, and it wasn’t like Lance was about to protest.

“Come on,” he said, leading the way through the kitchen as he finally managed to take a sip of his juice. It didn’t taste like orange juice despite being orange, definitely a sad reality, but it was still delicious. “Mmm. You’re gonna need one of these,” he decided, stopping by the fridge and pulling the juice back out again.

“I don’t drink juice,” Keith protested.

“Are you joking?”

“I just drink water,” Keith said with a shrug, and Lance gaped at him in offense before shoving his drink into Keith’s hands.

“Here,” he said. “Try this. You’ll like it.”

Keith looked down at Lance’s drink. Looked up at Lance. Back at the drink. Finally, he lifted it to his lips, taking the smallest of sips. Afterwards, he nodded slowly.

“Like it?” Lance demanded.

“I guess,” Keith admitted reluctantly, and Lance just smiled as he pulled a second glass out of one of the cabinets, filling it up a juice for Keith. He pressed it into Keith’s hands and led the way back to his room.

“The baths here are amazing. I tried mine last night,” he explained as he led the way to his bedroom.

“You want me to take a bath?” Keith said from somewhere behind him.

“Duh. Baths are a necessary part of relaxation.”

“Baths are gross,” Keith argued. “You just sit in a tub full of all your germs and dead skin cells.”

“Gross! Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

“It’s not!” Lance protested stubbornly. “All the soaps and stuff cancel it out. Just trust me.”

Keith didn’t look very trusting, what with his arms crossed over his chest as he glared in Lance’s general vicinity, but Lance ignored him in favor of turning the water on. It came roaring out of the pipe, filling the tub at a much faster pace than Lance was used to.

Beside the bath, there were a bunch of odd packets and things. It was all written in Hibrixan so it was impossible to read, but Lance just went ahead and guessed they were made for the bath, opening several of the packs and tossing their contents in. By the sink, there were a few other packets that Lance had already decided were face masks, so he brought those over too and placed them on the side of the tub. He plucked Keith’s juice from his hand and added it there as well.

And barely a minute later, the bath was full to the brim with wonderful smelling water, a nice coating of bubbles covering the top of it.

“All right,” Lance said. “Get in.”

Keith was already shirtless, but he stood there awkwardly, staring at Lance as Lance gestured impatiently towards the bath. “What, with you in here?”

“It’s not like I’ll be able to see you through the bubbles,” Lance pointed out. He then very pointedly held a hand in front of his eyes, grinning as he heard Keith’s begrudging sigh, followed by a few shuffling sounds and the lapping of water against the tub.

“Okay,” he said grumpily. “I’m in.”

“Perfect!” Lance said, uncovering his eyes and grinning down at Keith, who looked like the most uncomfortable person to have ever graced the smooth acrylic surface of a rich person’s bathtub. Still sure he could turn Keith’s attitude and relaxation status around, Lance picked up one of the face masks and held it out to him. “Here,” he said. “Put this on.”

Keith, apparently past the point of questioning Lance and arguing against him, ripped open the package and looked inside it. He stared at the face-mask-goop for a long moment before dipping a single finger in and slathering some of it over his jaw.

“Oh my God,” Lance said, because Keith was definitely hopeless.

“What?” Keith said, glaring half-heartedly up at Lance, still holding the packet.

“Just — let me do it,” Lance said tiredly, and then he was sitting on the edge of the tub, finding himself looking at a pink-cheeked Keith. For some reason, seeing Keith blush made him start to blush, but he ignored it in favor of dipping his hands in the water. “Get your hair out of the way,” Lance said as explanation, smoothing Keith’s hair away from his face with the water on his hands. He dipped and smoothed again, just for good measure (and certainly not because it was funny to see Keith with bubbles in his hair), before snatching the packet out of Keith’s hands and gathering all the goop on his fingers at once.

“Tilt your head up,” he instructed, and Keith obeyed, staring wide-eyed and tight-lipped at Lance as he rubbed his hands together before applying the mask to Keith’s face with easy, practiced motions. Soon, Keith looked like the perfect imitation of a pale green swamp-monster and Lance was loving it. “Feel okay?” he asked afterwards, dipping his hands into the bath once more to wash the excess goop off his hands.

Keith opened his eyes, which had fallen shut at some point during Lance’s ministrations, and he nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Feels fine.”

“Good. Now just close your eyes and relax, okay? You can wash your mask off in ten minutes. I’ll be in my room.”

“Okay,” Keith said, sounding suspiciously relaxed, that prickly bastard, before sinking a bit lower in the tub as Lance backed up towards the door. He looked stupidly adorable like that, and Lance found himself feeling impatient for when Keith would get out, all soft and damp and wrapped in one of those comfy robes provided for them.

Lance collapsed on his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes as he realized he might not even be able to handle that. He might accidentally have to kiss Keith all over his entire face, and he wasn’t entirely sure how Keith would respond to a random kiss attack. Feeling thoroughly overwhelmed, Lance flipped over and groaned into his pillow, wondering just why he did these things to himself.


	13. day thirteen: in a fairytale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith steals Lance's heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter's written a little differently! It was really fun to write, so i hope you enjoy it! <3
> 
> ps for anyone who forgot!!  
> pike = lance  
> block = hunk  
> meklavar = pidge  
> valayun = allura  
> gyro = shiro

Coran: All right! So everyone’s here that wants to be here, right?

Keith: I wouldn’t say that.

Lance: Shut up, Keith, I’m telling you you’re gonna have a good time. Even I had fun playing this nerd game!

Coran: Monsters and Mania is not a nerd game, Lance! It’s actually an ancient tradition amongst some of Altea’s smartest—

Lance: Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Nerds.

Hunk: Can we just start? I’m itchin’ for some good M&M time again.

Pidge: Can we use the same characters from last time, Coran?

Coran: Certainly! We can just continue that campaign, you know.

Lance: But then how is Keith going to come in?

Coran: I’ll find a way to introduce him, don’t you worry! Now, is everybody ready? Then let’s start!

—

Pike grinned, glad the old barmaid had been defeated and even gladder about the pile of treasure just sitting for the taking. He scurried forward, scooping as much gold into his pockets as could fit.

“It’s insane that we actually defeated that guy,” Block commented. “I guess… I’ll have to go back to figuring out how to turn my people back from stone, now.”

“Boooring!” Pike claimed, having gathered as much gold as he could manage. It was real gold too, he’d checked. “We gotta do something more fun than that boring old quest.”

“The plight of my people isn’t boring, Lance—”

“Pike!” Pike corrected. “And it _is_. Anyone else got any fun quests going on?”

“I’ve got a levaithan demon I’m trying to hunt down,” Gyro, Takashi Shirogane’s twin brother, offered. Pike shook his head firmly.

“I want something _cool_. Something _dangerous_. Something—” He was interrupted by a glowing light which expanded slowly, forming an image before them in the air. Inside of it was a prince who would’ve looked impeccable had his royal clothes not been completely tattered, his wrists and ankles shackled to the floor.

“What is _that_?!” Valayun demanded, peering closer at the image. She reached a hand forward to poke at it but Meklavar smacked her hand out of the way.

“ _If anyone’s hearing this_ …” the boy in the image said, his face staring imploringly at them, “ _Please, help me. I’ve been kidnapped from my kingdom and locked in a tower. I need help_.”

“All right!” Pike cheered. “Let’s go save this prince guy!”

“No way,” said Meklavar, crossing her arms over her chest, made bulky by all her armor. “What’s in it for us?”

“I’ll tell you what’s in it for us,” Pike said, voice lowering evilly. “We’ll save the prince from this tower, sure, but we won’t give him back to his kingdom unless there’s some big reward for us.”

“That’s not very noble,” Gyro pointed out. “I say we save him just to save him. Be the good guys about it.”

“My whole life revolves around money!” Pike claimed. “I’m not helping him for any other reason.”

“I say we go,” Block pitched in. “Gyro’s right about saving this guy, and I’m sure we’ll get money out of it without actually having to hold him for ransom. If he’s really a prince, I bet we’ll get paid handsomely as a thank you.”

“It’s decided then,” Valayun said. “We save the prince.”

“Er, what’s the prince’s name, anyway?” Pike asked.

The image flickered back to full brightness. Awkwardly, the prince said, “ _Uhh… This message is broadcasted by Prince… Um… Thunderstorm Darkness._ ”

—

Lance: WHAT? That can NOT be your name!

Coran: Sure it can! A strong name’s a good name, I say!

Lance: That’s ridiculous! That’s such a stupid name, Keith, come on! You can do better than that!

Keith: Like Pike? As if you’re not just using that as a synonym for Lance.

Lance: I— you— I’m not—I’m! Keith!

Hunk: Just let him have the name, Lance. It doesn’t matter.

Lance: It matters!

Keith: Whatever. I’m sticking with it.

Lance: Of course you are.

—

“All right,” Pike grumbled, extremely dissatisfied for some reason. “Let’s go save Thunderstorm Darkbutt.”

“That’s not his name,” Block pointed out.

“Could’ve sworn it was,” said Pike, and then their adventure was on its way. About five steps out the doors of the dungeon, Pike felt his pockets suddenly empty themselves.

—

Lance: Coran! You said the gold was real!

Coran: _No_ , I said Pike _perceived_  it was real.

Lance: But I rolled a 13! That’s gotta be good enough!

Coran: Sorry, Lance. It was a hard boss. You needed a 15 to know that gold was fake.

Lance: Can’t believe I wasted a turn shoving fake gold into my pockets…

—

Pike immediately devised a plan. Unbeknownst to his teammates, he decided he would capture Thunder after they saved him. Then, he could use him for ransom against his kingdom and keep all the money to himself.

The journey to the castle was treacherous. They had to go through a haunted forest in order to get there, and for a while, Meklavar was possessed by a ghost and kept trying to hack their heads off with her axe every chance she got. Everyone refused Pike’s idea of killing her to save themselves the trouble, and so they were forced to deal with her nuisances for a while, which slowed them down by a lot.

Valayun used her bow to catch them dinner when they got hungry (with a sudden abundance of skill, shooting a deer-like animal straight through the eye) but then Block didn’t cook it for long enough and they all got food poisoning. A hospital-detour had to be made, Block too weak to use any healing magic on them, before they were finally arriving at the tower. There were no doors at the bottom, meaning they would have to climb.

“I’ve got no summoning arrows left,” Valayun sighed sadly, confirming Pike’s suspicion. After that, they were forced to climb the rather treacherous and completely vertical climb to the single window above them. At one point, Gyro almost died, but he managed to survive the fall by grabbing onto a ledge, joining them at the top only a little while later.

“All right, let’s find this Thunderstorm Darkness and get the heck out of here,” Pike proclaimed, the first to hop through the window and into the room beyond. He’d expected the prince to be in the room, but it was empty. All that was there were broken bits of wood scattered on the ground and dirt.

“Look,” said Meklavar. “A staircase.” Meklavar led the way, the rest of them following her down the spiral stairs. It led all the way to the bottom of the tower, and only once they were there did they finally see Thunderstorm Darkness, who was still shackled and leaning against the far wall, looking pitiful.

Gyro stepped forward to get him out of his bounds and Thunder woke up, looking around blearily and appraising the group that’d come to save him.

“You guys saw my message?” he croaked.

They didn’t have a chance to respond, however, because before they knew it, a giant flesh-eating centipede started racing down the stairs, a cackling evil wizard sitting astride the beast’s back.

“Oh no!” said Thunder. “My captor!”

“I have an idea!” said Block, before he proceeded to sing a truly magnificent song. The song was so beautiful, in fact, that it made the centipede stop rampaging towards them, and the wizard just so happened to fall asleep to the tune. Pike, too, was feeling particularly happy and relaxed, and with that, Block casted a spell and there was a hole in the tower’s wall, which they escaped through.

—

Lance: I can’t believe that worked!

Coran: This isn’t fair! You keep getting out of my boss battles too easily!

Lance: It’s not our fault Hunk’s good at rolling a dice, Coran.

Pidge: A die, Lance. It’s a die when there’s only one.

Lance: Shut up!

—

Free of the tower and its beast, and similarly freed of the overwhelming peace and cooperability Block’s song had put over him, Lance decided to enact his plan.

—

Lance: While everyone’s eating dinner, I convince Thunder to come with me into the woods to tell him about an offer I have, specifically for him. We sneak away from the fire unnoticed and, once we’re far enough in the woods, I tie him up and bound him so he can’t speak.

Keith: What the fuck, Lance?!

Coran: Roll for deception, stealth, and athletics.

Lance: Does my proficiency in charisma apply to the deception?

Coran: Yes.

Lance: Okayyy then I got a… YES! An 18!

Coran: Thunderstorm Darkness is intrigued by the special offer you have for him, so he follows you into the woods eagerly.

Pidge: Heh. Eagerly.

Shiro: _No_ , Pidge.

Coran: Roll for stealth, Lance?

Lance: Um… 15? And a 16 for athletics!

Hunk: I think Lance is cheating.

Keith: Yeah I think Lance is cheating, too.

Lance: You guys are just jealous!

Coran: Let’s see, a 15 for stealth… Hmm… Okay. You and Thunderstorm make your way out of the clearing, though Thunder, much less stealthy than someone who thieves for a living, steps on a few twigs that snap underfoot along the way. When Block turns to look, however, you use your teleportation abilities to disappear, and then you lead Thunder further into the woods on foot just to be sure no one overhears you.

Keith: Ugh! Can’t I roll to fight him off, Coran?!

Coran: You can certainly try.

Keith: Okay.

Lance: HA! HAHAHA! A ONE! KEITH GOT A ONE! CRITICAL FAIL, DUDE!

Keith: Shut up!

Coran: Weak from your days spent locked up in the tower, you’re no match for Pike, who’s been eating regularly and exercising often, though you’ll be fairly stronger than him once you’re in good health again. Soon enough, he has you in bindings once again, and the cloth in your mouth prevents you from calling out for help. Where do we go from here?

—

Pike was absolutely thrumming at the success of his plan. Thunder was glaring at him heatedly, but he ignored the look and instead grabbed the rope hanging from his wrists, using it to guide him through the forest. Though he was pretty sure the others were looking for them, they failed to be found, and Pike’s confidence only grew as he thought of the prize money he’d end up getting because of the prince.

—

Coran: That’s it for your round, Pidge. So you guys are still without Pike and Thunder, still without money, and now waiting cold in the rain. That brings us to your turn, Keith.

Keith: All right. I think I know what I’m doing.

Coran: Take it away, then, my boy.

Keith: Okay. I know I’m not a rogue, but can I steal something?

Lance: Sounds like you’re stealing my thunder, Keith. Why don’t you stay in prince lane?!

Coran: You can try to steal something, yes.

Keith: All right. I want to steal Pike’s heart.

Lance: WHAT?

Keith: Metaphorically.

Lance: Still, WHAT?

Coran: Why don’t you roll for deception, Keith. And performance, while you’re at it.

Keith: Okay. Okay, so that’s a 16, and—

Lance: WHAT THE FUCK! THAT’S NOT FAIR! CORAN! THAT’S TOTALLY NOT—

Keith: Suck it, Lance!

Pidge: What? What’d he get?!

Hunk: Oh my God, he got a 20. This is so great! Lance is so screwed!

Lance: I hate this game!

Coran: Okay, Keith, take it away. What do you do to Pike?

Keith: I notice Pike waking up, so I pretend to still be sleeping and stretch, making my shirt ride up my stomach. I peek to make sure he’s looking, and he is, and then I — Pidge, plug your ears. No seriously, plug them — and then I make a suggestive noise. I lay there until Pike comes over, and then I give him the best sex of his life. Afterwards, I tell him I’m glad he stole me away.

Hunk: Oh my God.

Lance: He— he can’t do that! Right? Coran?! Don’t I get a say in who my character has sex with?!

Coran: He stole your heart, Lance. Rolled a 20. It’s not up to me how he does it.

Lance: This isn’t fair!

Pidge: Just accept the fact that Keith fucked your brains out and you’re in love with him.

Keith: I told you to plug your ears!

Pidge: Yeah, like that was gonna work.

Coran: It’s your turn now, Lance, but you’re still love-struck.

Lance: Fine! But _I’m_  gonna steal _Thunder’s_  heart back. Watch me.

—

Pike pulled the makeshift blanket higher over himself and Thunder, burying his nose into Thunder’s bare shoulder and humming contently. He suddenly remembered that Thunder was still bound, though, and he quickly reached down to slice through the ropes with his claws. They’d been necessary before, and certainly fun during the bit of… fun… they’d just had, but now they were completely unnecessary.

—

Lance: Thunder had a tragic backstory, right? Like, some orphanage backstory? Before he was adopted by the king and queen?

Coran: Correct. Care to elaborate, Keith?

Keith: Actually, I was deceiving everyone in my original broadcast. I _used_  to be the son of a king and queen, so I am a prince, technically, but they both died when my kingdom was taken over, and that’s when I was captured nearly ten years ago.

Lance: Jesus, Keith, that’s angsty as fuck.

Keith: A good story, though.

Coran: It is indeed!

Lance: Okay. I steal Thunder’s heart just by being nice to him. _No weird sexual acts needed_. I tell him how cute and smart he is and I cook him a good breakfast just to be nice. I kiss him softly and cup his face and all that good shit.

Coran: Sounds good! Roll for performance.

Lance: Okay, erm, 14?

Coran: Hm… Good enough. After the hard life Thunder’s lived, this change is really good for him, and he falls for Pike quickly. The breakfast is delicious and the kisses are even sweeter. The two of you have successfully stolen each other’s hearts.

Hunk: All right. I think I’m ready for a break, how ‘bout everyone else?

Pidge: Yeah.

Allura: Sounds good!

Shiro: Good with me.

Coran: All right! So next time, the four of you will continue with your quest to track down the disappearing act, and Lance and Keith, you two can decide as a couple whether you want to find some new quest to go on or try to re-find your friends and attempt to make amends.

Lance: Wait, a couple?

Coran: Well I sure hope so! You have just stolen each other’s hearts, after all!

Lance: R-right. Of course.

Keith: Um.

Lance: I guess that’s it for today, then! I’m starved! Hunk? Help me find something to eat? Right now?

Hunk: Sure, Lance. Let’s go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> p.s. i read a lot of random dnd rule things in order to make this sjdfalk. also i'm feeling like i could make a p good dungeon master ngl


	14. day fourteen: geeking out over something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is whipped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy fourth of july @ all my fellow americans and, more importantly, happy birthday to my dog he’d an old man and the cutest puppy i ever did see

It was their last day on Hibrixus and they were using it to explore the local markets, umbrellas held firmly in hand.

“I don’t get why their markets are _outside_ ,” Pidge grumbled, her umbrella held so close to her head no one could even see her face as she spoke.

“This is normal, everyday life for them,” Lance said, bopping his umbrella against Pidge’s and getting rain all over his head in the process. Keith doubted he cared, seeing as how he’d saved time each day they’d been here specifically for taking a walk in the rain. “Why wouldn’t they have their markets outside?”

Keith agreed with Lance, though silently, not wanting to rile Pidge up.

“I heard they have waterproof tech,” Hunk mentioned casually, and Pidge’s umbrella perked up as she spun in place, whipping water all around as she turned to face Hunk.

“Really?!”

Like that, the two of them were off like a shot, having some fun technology to investigate. That was how they’d lost their entire group already: Allura had spotted some jewelry and dragged Romelle off with her, Coran had managed to engage Krolia in some boring adult-jargon that she’d for some reason enjoyed, and Shiro had trailed after them, proving that he really was the old man his hair now depicted him as.

Now, it was just Keith and Lance. It seemed to end up like that a lot, these days. Keith couldn’t exactly say that he minded, though.

“What do you want to look at?” Lance asked, turning to face Keith with a lopsided smile. It made sense that they’d shop together, seeing as they were still together now, but it made something in Keith’s stomach wriggle fiercely, knowing Lance actually wanted to spend this time with him, wanted to know what _Keith_  wanted to shop for. As if Lance hadn’t always been the one with an eye for cool knick-knacks and useful gadgets in the first place.

“I don’t have anything in mind,” Keith said. He was having to take Lance in in glances, because every time he looked at him that comfortable and genuine smile was _still there_  and his heart was starting to ache in his chest. God. He’d probably do anything just to kiss those lips, to wrap his arms around his waist and let Lance devour him. He wanted to throw his umbrella to the ground, wanted to sidle up with Lance under his, walk hand in hand or with Lance’s arm around his waist. He just wanted to be as close to him as he could get.

“That’s fine,” Lance said easily, snapping Keith out of his thoughts, thank _God_. “We’ll just browse. It’s more fun that way, anyway.”

Keith let Lance lead the way, feeling he was probably an expert at navigating all these little markets they’d come across in their travels. And he was.

He seemed to have an eye for the most interesting booths, pulling Keith over to tables where Hibrixans were handing out samples of candy that was similar to taffy back on Earth, except it changed flavor as you ate it and grew as you tried to chew it. Lance found vendors selling plants that moved and gasses that made you high. There were free samples for that booth, too, but with a glance at Keith, Lance just shook his head ‘no thank you’.

It was even Lance who found the knife booth. “You like knives, don’t you, Keith?” he said, guiding Keith towards it expectantly. Keith’s eyes had already grown wide in anticipation. He _did_  like knives. Growing up with his mom’s knife, he’d always been curious about what it was, about why it was so unlike anything he’d ever seen on Earth. He’d done a lot of research about knives, after that, and instead of gaining any insight on the one he’d grown up with, he became interested in the weapon in general.

“Hi!” the vendor said, when he realized Keith and Lance were walking towards his booth. “How are you two today? Can I interest you in any knives?”

“Oh, I think you can,” Lance said, catching a glimpse of Keith’s face. He was trying to tone it down, really, but these knives were _amazing_. There were so many different kinds and styles, so many different metal types and colors, all beautifully made.

“Wonderful!” the vendor said. “Here’s one of our latest models. It has a skeletonized handle-style, it’s hand engraved, and it has these nifty finger rings too, really good for if you fight with a slashing style. Stainless steel, mirror finish, and as you can see here it’s got this serrated section, real painful to get stabbed with.”

Keith reached forward, the vendor pressing the knife into his hand as he slipped his fingers into the rings. They fit comfortably, despite being metal, and he took a step back and slashed with it a few times, feeling his blood start to thrum as he imagined himself fighting with it.

“This is awesome,” he said, stepping back forward and laying it on the table. “What else you got?”

“You look like you know how to handle a knife,” the vendor continued, holding up a finger as he seemed to get inspiration before stepping to the back of his area and picking up a large knife from the table there. “Here we’ve got a ten-inch blade, metal alloy, bolstered around the handle right here. It’s a big blade, yes, but there’s no chance of it coming loose. Beautifully sculpted, this one, got a great center of balance.” As if to demonstrate, the vendor held out a hand, balancing the blade of the knife on one finger as he held it in the air. “See?”

“Amazing,” Keith breathed. He expected Lance to look lost, to be staring at all the weapons before them in some sort of confusion. When he looked over at him, however, Lance wasn’t looking at the weapons. He was already looking at Keith, a soft smile on his face.

“What?” Keith said, which seemed to snap him out of it.

“Nothing!” Lance said quickly. “Just— you seem to know a lot about knives, is all.”

Keith shrugged a bit self-consciously. “I like them.” And then his gaze drifted back to the table, his eyes locking on one that seemed to grip him. It was beautiful.

The handle had a floral print, the background white while colorful flowers bloomed all over it, its finish shiny and smooth looking. The blade itself was a dark gray, almost as dark as his luxite blade. While one side of it was smooth and sharp, the other was serrated.

“How much is that one?” Keith demanded, pointing at the knife he was barely able to take his eyes off of.

“Oh, you like this blade, huh? You’ve got an extremely good eye. This one’s selling for a thousand coins.”

Keith’s face fell. He didn’t have nearly enough for the knife, having been spending his allowance pretty liberally at all the markets they’d visited. It was a real shame, too, although it didn’t _really_  matter. It wasn’t like Keith actually needed a third weapon anyway.

“Oh,” he said. “That’s a bit out of my price range, I’m sorry.”

The vendor looked just as sad as Keith. “How unfortunate,” he said solemnly. “Perhaps next time, then.”

Keith was just about to nod, knowing there’d never be a ‘next time’, when Lance stepped forward and said, “Make it 900 and I’ll buy it.”

The vendor blinked. Lance slammed his coin bag on the counter, and the vendor nodded. “Sold,” he agreed, and Lance opened his bag to start dumping coins into his hand, which was when Keith remembered how to speak.

“Lance!” he said, rushing forward in an attempt to stop him. “You can’t buy me that knife!”

“Sure I can,” Lance said happily, finally scooting his money across the table. The vendor picked up the knife and began boxing it, pulling out a beautiful sheath for it to fit in first.

“I won’t let you,” Keith argued. “I— that’s— you’ve been saving your money for something good!”

“This is something good,” Lance insisted, leaning his hip against the table and grinning at Keith like the asshole he was. _Bastard_ , thinking he could just throw away his money for a stupid knife! _For Keith_!

“No it’s not,” Keith argued. “You shouldn’t waste your money on me—”

“It’s not a waste,” Lance interrupted. “And I wasn’t saving my money, not really. I just couldn’t seem to make myself buy anything for myself. Now I have.”

“Except you didn’t buy it for yourself,” Keith pointed out. “You bought it for me.”

“I bought it for you, _for myself_ ,” Lance said stubbornly. “I bought myself a front-row ticket to seeing you geek out about that knife every time you use it.”

There were so many things Keith wanted to pick apart about that statement. About how Lance somehow thought getting something for Keith the same as also getting something for himself. About how he’d somehow enjoyed watching Keith get excited about something dumb. But one thing stuck in Keith’s mind a bit more prevalently.

“I wasn’t geeking out!” he protested.

“Here you are, sir.”

“Thank you,” Lance said, reaching out for the bag. Keith’s mouth dropped open. Lance needed to return that stupid knife _right now_.

Lance turned and starting walking away, and all Keith could do was run after him. “Lance!” he snapped. “Go return that knife!”

“Wow, you wound me,” Lance said exaggeratedly, putting a hand to his heart. “And you’re not even holding the knife yet.”

“Lance—”

“Stop arguing with me Keith, you know I’m not gonna return it. You might as well just enjoy it. Here.” He shoved the bag into Keith’s stomach, and Keith was forced to grab it before it could fall to the muddy ground. “Now show me one of those cool knife tricks I know you can do.”

And Keith, well. He was only so strong, okay? There was only so long he could avoid the temptation, the excitement of a brand new and shiny knife. He ended up tearing into the bag and pulling out the sheathed knife, shoving the trash back into Lance’s hands. He clipped the sheath onto his belt, feeling stupidly happy about the addition, and withdrew the knife, the handle wonderfully smooth and comfortable in his hand.

“Knife trick! Knife trick! Knife trick!” Lance chanted quietly, and Keith rolled his eyes, flushing.

“It’s not that cool,” he said.

“I’ve seen you dual-wield, dude,” Lance said. “Pretty sure you’ve pulled off some weird-ass juggling moves in the middle of battle, too. I know you can do cool things.”

Keith tried to ignore Lance just as much as he tried to ignore how much hotter his face was getting. Finally, he decided to just do the damn trick. It was something he’d taught himself back on Earth and something that’d since assisted him many times in battle. He laid the handle in his palm, then flicked his hand, letting the blade roll over the back of his hand before the handle slapped back into his palm.

Lance reached over and smacked him on the back, grabbing a fistfull of his jacket and shaking him. “I can’t believe you can do that!” he said, laughing as he shook Keith. “You’re like— you’re a fuckboy! Only fuckboys can do that!”

Keith spluttered. “You told me to do it, Lance!”

“I know!” Lance cheered, before holding his hand out. “Let me try.”

“No way,” Keith scoffed. “You’ll cut yourself.”

“No I won’t! Let me try, Keith!”

“No.”

Lance made a grab for the knife and Keith jumped backwards. For a moment, the two of them froze like that, and then Lance’s mouth started to stretch into a smile. A laugh ripped itself out of Keith before he turned tail and ran, slipping through the mud as he sprinted away from Lance, who yelled as he chased him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LADJSASDAD THAT FEELING WHEN YOU COMPLETELY FORGOT ROMELLE EVEN EXISTED WHOOPS LJASLDJASD i just casually mentioned her this chapter after remembering she's been with them this entire time :)))))) Oops :)))


	15. day fifteen: teaching each other how to do something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance play 21 questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ^_^

After their stint on Hibrixus, Allura and Keith had decided it’d be best to fly without stopping for a while. Lance was pretty sure they’d been at it for a few days now, though he wasn’t entirely certain. Everyone was taking turns sleeping while others stayed awake, making sure they didn’t fly into an ambush or something, and Lance had only just woken up this time around.

Now, though, they were docking for a quick stop at a space mall to stock up on supplies and get a chance to stretch their legs. Lance was glad, and not just because he’d eaten the last of his food and grown a bit stir-crazy in Red’s cockpit. He just missed being around his friends. Not everyone was as lucky as Keith and Allura to have (human) company in their lions.

“I’m hungryyy,” Lance had whined as he’d traipsed down his lion’s ramp, immediately collapsing against Hunk’s back.

“That’s because you finished all your provisions first,” Hunk had answered, reaching back to pat Lance on the side.

“Allura said we were stopping soon! How was I supposed to know that meant in a couple of hours?!”

Now though, having gone to the mall’s food court with the team and eaten a fulfilling lunch, Lance was back in a lion. Keith’s lion.

He and Keith had been helping with the shopping at first, following Allura and Coran around along with the rest of the team as they’d led them into shops for food and other seemingly important things, but they’d ended up getting kicked out after having gotten distracted one too many times. Lance still blamed Keith for knocking over that display case — just because he was running didn’t mean Keith had to chase him.

“Think they’ll be back soon?” Keith asked, sitting with his legs crossed on the control panel, its buttons inactive as the black lion rested. He was sitting there because Lance had stolen his seat, his back against one armrest and his legs flung over the other.

“ _What are you doing_?” Keith had said after Lance had strolled right into his lion, plopping down in the pilot’s seat like he owned the place.

“ _Sitting. What are_ you _doing_?”

Keith had just sighed and sat down on the dashboard.

“No idea,” Lance said now, letting his head tip back. “I mean, there was a lot of stuff they were planning on getting, right? And I think Allura was planning on letting everyone shop around afterwards…”

Keith huffed, impatient.

“Let’s play a game,” Lance suggested, spinning around and sitting up to face Keith properly. “Something to pass the time.”

“What game could we play with only two people?” Keith scoffed.

“I don’t know. We could play like, 21 questions or something.”

“The one where you have to think of an object or something?”

“No,” Lance protested immediately, indignant. This was an argument he’d had with his siblings a million times. “ _That’s_  20 questions. 21 questions is where we just ask questions about each other.”

“But then isn’t that a getting to know each other game? We already know each other.”

“Yeah, which means we can skip to all the fun questions. Come on! Let’s play!”

Keith grumbled something under his breath, shifting a bit where he sat and grabbing onto his crossed ankles, but he finally said, “Fine.”

Lance gasped, surprised and excited that Keith had actually agreed. “Okay! You go first.” He sat there expectantly, waiting for Keith to ask his question.

“Why do I have to go first?”

“Oh my God, do you want me to go?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. Are you a virgin?”

“ _Lance_!”

“What?! You said you wanted me to go first!”

“I didn’t think you were gonna ask _that_!”

They sat there silently, expectantly. Lance grinning and Keith flushed.

“Are you really not gonna answer? Do I need to ask you something else?”

“Yes.”

“Yes I need to ask you something else?”

“No. _Yes_ , I’m a virgin,” Keith muttered, clearly embarrassed. “Are you?”

“No repeat questions,” Lance scoffed, impatient.

“What?! That’s not fair!”

“I _gave_  you the chance to ask me the first question!” Lance said, crossing his arms superiorly. The truth was that yes, he was still a virgin, though he was surprised that Keith was too. He’d just always seemed so cool to Lance, and back at the Garrison he’d been absolutely convinced Keith was getting all the ladies. Although, lately, he wasn’t too sure if ‘ladies’ was what Keith _wanted_  to get.

Keith huffed angrily, glaring at Lance as he tried to come up with a good question instead. “Okay. Um. Do you still like Allura?”

It was a surprising question. Something Lance hadn’t realized would’ve ever been on Keith’s mind. “No,” he said honestly. “Me liking her was… a distraction, I think. From all the war stuff,” he said. It _had_  been a distraction, though not from the war. It’d been in an attempt to get over his feelings about Keith after he’d left. And while this was a game of honesty, Lance didn’t feel like he had to be _that_  honest.

But Keith’s eyebrows had risen, his head bobbing slightly as he nodded. “Cool,” he said.

“Are you excited to go home?” Lance asked, the very next thing to pop into his head. He watched Keith’s expression, examined the way he cocked his head a bit, his eyebrows drawing closer together.

“Mostly,” he said. “I— I like Earth. I miss seeing other humans. And I miss the desert, and the sun. But I don’t know. Space kind of feels like home to me now, you know? And now that I’ve found Krolia… I feel like there’s nothing really left there for me. Except my dad’s grave.”

Lance frowned. He cleared his throat. “You know,” he said, swinging his legs now. “While they’re rebuilding the castle and stuff, you and Krolia and Shiro… You could come back with me. To my house. It’s not like, huge or anything, but we’re experts on fitting more people in there than we should be able to.”

Lance didn’t realize he’d been staring at his knees as he spoke until he was done, and then he looked back up only to find Keith grinning at him. He couldn't help returning the expression, though more tentatively.

“That sounds great,” Keith agreed, huffing out a laugh, and Lance’s smile redoubled its efforts, hurting his cheeks with how wide it grew.

“Yeah? Good. And it’s your turn.”

“Okay.” Keith pursed his lips. Chewed on his cheek. Blew air through his nose. “Okay. So. Are you straight?” There was a moment of silence between them, and then Keith was rushing to fill it. “I mean, we’ve met a lot of different species, many of which don’t even have genders, and you’ve hit on practically everyone we’ve met—”

“I’m not,” Lance said, interrupting him. “I’m bi, so.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah.”

 

“Are you? Straight, that is.”

“No repeat questions,” Keith said mockingly, and Lance laughed, bending over to press his forehead against his knees. What a bastard.

There seemed to be this mounting tension between them, one that Lance was too scared to put a name too. His chest felt tight, his heart fluttering almost anxiously in his chest, except he didn’t actually feel anxious. He felt like he wanted to jump up and run around. Like he wanted to climb onto Keith’s lap and laugh into his hair, as if _that_  would ever be socially acceptable.

More questions passed. Lance learned that Keith had never seen snow and that he’d lived in a home for six years after his dad died. Lance admitted that he was having trouble remembering certain words in Spanish and that he was afraid his little cousins wouldn’t recognize him anymore.

Lance bounced his foot in the air, his right ankle perched on his left knee. “Okay,” he said. “So you’re not a virgin. How far _have_  you gone?”

“We’re back on this now, are we?” Keith scoffed, crossing his arms grumpily.

“Come on, Keith!” Lance pestered. “This is what, like, normal friends talk about. Instead of battle strategies and whether we’ll get murdered in our sleep if we stop to stay the night somewhere.”

Keith huffed. “Fine,” he said. And then he muttered something under his breath so quietly Lance couldn’t hope to decipher it.

“What?”

“Avndonanthin.”

“Helpful,” Lance said sarcastically.

Keith sighed loudly. “I’ve never even dated anyone, Lance. I haven’t done anything.”

“What, like, not even a kiss!?”

“No,” Keith said sullenly.

“You’re kidding me,” Lance scoffed.

“I’m not.”

“Wha— How could you _not_  have kissed anyone!? You’ve flown a magic robot lion and fought evil aliens and you’ve never even kissed anyone?”

“ _Yes_ , Lance, how many times do I have to say it?”

“Once more?”

Keith glared at him. “Can we just move on?”

“Fine!”

“How many people have you kissed?”

“I don’t know, like, seven? Are you excited to have your first kiss?”

Keith groaned. “We’re really not moving past this, are we?”

“Nope.”

With a sigh, Keith said, “I don’t know, isn’t everyone?”

“Oh my God, you _are_  excited!”

“Please don’t make a big deal out of this.”

“I’m not, I’m not! I’d do it for you, you know.” Lance had no idea where the absolute balls came from for him to say this, but it’d left his mouth before he’d even had a chance to consider it. And then there it was, out in the open, the offer of a lifetime.

Keith started spluttering. “What?” he finally managed.

“It’s not a big deal, dude. People kiss all the time. And you already know I’m into guys.”

“Um.”

“Unless you’re super straight, ‘cause that’s fine too. I get it.”

“No, I’m— I’m not straight. I’m gay.”

A smile broke out across Lance’s face. “Nice,” he said. “So you wanna do this thing?”

Blushing furiously and stammering on every word, Keith said in a high pitch, “ _What thing_?”

“Just some guys being dudes,” Lance said, waving his hand flippantly. He was suddenly feeling calm about it all, despite the fact that this was actually probably a horrible idea. “You don’t have to say yes, but—“

“I’ll do it,” Keith interrupted, his eyes immediately growing wide and falling to his knees before flickering back up.

“You will!?”

“Um. Yeah. I’m just curious...”

“Not a problem, dude,” Lance said, standing up from his seat and stretching loftily.

“Oh! Right now?”

“Did you want to wait?”

“No, no, I was just— I don’t know.” Keith shifted restlessly before he uncrossed his legs, letting them dangle over the edge of the control panel. Lance pretended not to see him wipe his presumably sweaty palms off on his thighs. “We can do it now.”

“‘Cause if you want to wait—”

“ _Lance_.”

“Right, right. I gotchu,” Lance said, and he shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, trying not to feel awkward about this. It was just a kiss. Just a kiss with the guy he was pretty sure he was head over heels for. No big deal. “I’m gonna come kiss you now.”

“Okay,” Keith said, a breath shuddering out of him as he placed his hands stiffly on his knees.

Lance felt the grin on his own lips. He couldn’t help it. He was excited. “You ready?” he asked, and Keith nodded jerkily, licking his lips.

“As I’ll ever be,” he muttered. And then Lance stepped in between his legs, reaching out and cupping Keith’s face. His heart was pounding, but he ignored it as he leaned in.

“Relax,” he whispered, practically against Keith’s lips, and then he was closing the gap completely, swallowing down the tiny gasp Keith let out and pressing against him firmer, his hand sliding from his cheek into his hair.

For a second, Lance thought _déjà vu_ , and then he wasn’t really thinking anything at all. Keith did relax, thankfully, his body melting into Lance’s as he reached out and latched on, pulling Lance closer to him.

It was clear this was his first kiss, his lips moving slowly and clumsily against Lance’s, but it was endearing and adorable, and not entirely bad either.

Their lips parted and came back together, the two of them moving against each other entirely easily, entirely in sync. Lance’s hand was gripping the back of Keith’s neck, his fingers scratching up into his hair without him even realizing. Keith’s legs were hooked around Lance’s, holding him where he was and keeping him there.

And Lance knew this was just a favor, just him showing Keith what a kiss was really like, but he couldn’t seem to stop. Couldn’t seem to believe he was actually _kissing_  Keith.

Keith’s mouth was parted so Lance licked his way inside, deepening the kiss and angling Keith’s head back as he did. God, he wanted to press Keith back against the control panel, wanted to kiss him all over his face, wanted suck a hickey on his neck. He was hopeless.

It took way too much effort to pull away from Keith, and even when Lance managed to, he didn’t go far, resting his forehead against Keith’s while the two of them panted against each other.

“Good?” Lance said, his lips brushing against Keith’s as he spoke, and then he finally leaned back a little, getting a good look at Keith’s face. His lips were flushed pink and his eyes were glazed over.

He nodded a little, his eyebrows furrowing as his fingers rose up to touch his lips, and that almost had Lance smacking his hand out of the way and kissing him all over again, because that was fucking _adorable_.

“Yeah,” Keith finally manage. “Yeah, that was— that was good. Thank you.”

“Anything for you, dude,” Lance said, and then he patted Keith’s legs, making him flush and unwind them from where they’d ended up hooked behind Lance’s knees.

“ _Paladins_.”

Lance and Keith jerked away from each other as they turned to see Allura’s face on Black’s screens, and suddenly Lance was aware of what a mess Keith’s hair was, of how wrinkled his own shirt looked, of how pink both their lips surely were. He could hardly manage to keep eye contact with Allura.

“Yes, Princess?” Keith said, somehow managing to regain his composure.

Allura, sounding slightly breathless, said, “We’re making a bit of a quicker exit than we’d intended. Please be ready to take off in about twenty ticks.”

Lance and Keith shared identical panicked looks and then Lance was sprinting out of Keith’s lion to get to his own. It wasn’t until they were way away from the space mall, apparently infested with Galra scouts, that Lance remembered his night on that one planet with the weird blueberry fruit.

Just like that, his good mood dissolved, something in his chest sinking horribly as he realized he’d _already seen today_ , or at least a part of it.

That kiss with Keith he’d had a vision of, the one that had given him so much stupid hope and kept him up all night — it wasn’t even real. It was just _this_. Just Lance showing Keith what a kiss was like, just something shared completely without meaning between the two of them.

Lance was silent the next few hours as they flew, completely heartbroken and downtrodden. It just wasn’t fair. He liked Keith _so much_  and they weren’t even going to be together in the future. That stupid fruit had given him so much hope, and now it was dashed, crushed like an ant underfoot. Lance couldn’t help thinking he’d been an idiot to think it’d even meant anything more in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahahahha!!! just like lance your hopes are fulfilled and dashed!!! 
> 
> i swear i'm not evil guys, be patient!! i hope you enjoyed it despite that slightly sour aftertaste ^^


	16. day sixteen: needing each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miraculously, Keith and Lance talk about their feelings for once.

Keith was a mess.

He couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything. Several times now, he’d tuned out the conversation happening over the comms only to realize everyone was waiting for his input when he zoned back in to a flurry of, “Keith? You there?”s.

It didn’t help that Lance wasn’t talking to him. The kiss was practically all Keith could think about, and now Lance wasn’t even joining in in the conversations over the comms. He was never sending a message Keith’s way, trying to secretly convince him to convince Allura to let them stop or to ask Keith to turn on his video because, “ _Look, I taught myself to juggle_!”

Instead, it was radio silence, and Keith was feeling more and more anxious as time passed. Lance had said it was no big deal, that people kissed all the time, except now he wasn’t even speaking to Keith.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t so hung up on Lance, but he _was_. Lance was constantly finding a way to worm into his thoughts, and Keith had stupidly let himself believe that that kiss could be the start to a future he hadn’t let himself believe was real.

And _fuck_ , that kiss. Granted, Keith didn’t have any other kisses to compare it to, but he didn’t think he was wrong in saying it was a good kiss. Like, a he couldn’t sleep at night, kind of good. A his lips ached to touch Lance’s again, kind of good. A he wanted to date Lance and hold his hand and cup his cheeks and tell him how perfect he was, kind of good. Kisses could do that, right?

Stupid feelings.

Even Shiro and Krolia had noticed something was up. It was impossible for them to miss how Keith was feeling, what with how anxious he suddenly was, the emotion escaping through his normally idle body, now committed to constantly bouncing knees and tapping fingers. And when he wasn’t moving restlessly, he was stock-still, sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest as he stared wide-eyed out the screens before him, wondering if he’d managed to ruin everything.

“Are you okay?” Shiro had asked, only a day after they’d left the space mall. That’s when Keith had started panicking, because Lance hadn’t spoken to him once and he’d only talked over the comms sparingly, sounding nothing like his usual energetic self, either. As if the way Keith was acting wasn’t enough to clue him and Krolia in, there was probably also the fact that they’d noticed the absence of Lance’s usual interjections into the black lion’s speakers to let them know something was up.

“Fine,” Keith had said, because talking about his feelings definitely wasn’t a strong suit of his. Except for when he was with Lance. Because Lance seemed to be the exception for everything, to Keith.

Except he wasn’t fine. He wanted to talk to Lance. Wanted to know why their kiss had turned into such a big deal all the sudden.

And luckily, the chance to talk to Lance came relatively quickly. Despite their latest prerogative to fly for as long as they could without stopping, they weren’t actually as stocked up on supplies as they’d wanted to be, seeing as they’d been chased off that space mall station before all the necessary shopping could be completed. And so, feeling the need to finish buying whatever they needed before venturing into some stretch of space Allura and Coran didn’t know as well, they were stopping on a planet that residents from many surrounding planets travelled to to set up markets.

Shiro clapped Keith on the shoulder before exiting the black lion, and Keith stood up from his seat with a sigh, feeling a stupid mix of anxious and upset. He felt like he’d somehow managed to do something wrong, despite knowing he couldn’t have. It’d been Lance’s idea to kiss him, Lance’s idea to play that stupid question game. It’d only been Keith’s idea to go ahead and have feelings for the idiot.

“You two’ll work it out,” Krolia said suddenly, stopping to brush a hand through Keith’s hair. The touch seemed to kickstart him into action, and he started exiting Black with his mother at his side.

“I hope so,” Keith muttered under his breath.

And Krolia, with her enhanced Galra hearing, patted him on the back, ensuring him it would all be fine.

The area they’d landed on was a docking station, filled with many less conspicuous alien spaceships than their lions. Lance was standing at the end of the red lion’s ramp and Hunk was directly in front of him, his head bent towards Lance as they spoke to each other in low voices. Something in Keith itched to know what it was they were talking about.

“Can you hear them?” Keith found himself asking, twisting his head to look at Krolia.

“You would want me to eavesdrop on your friends?” she said, sounding amused.

Keith shrugged. “Kind of.”

“I can’t hear them,” Krolia said, her tone final. “And even if I could, I wouldn’t tell you what they were saying. I would tell you to go over there and talk to him yourself.”

Keith spluttered, his face going red as he crossed his arms. “I don’t have anything to say to him,” he said grumpily, as about a million ideas of just what he could say to Lance played through his mind.

Krolia scoffed. “Yeah, right,” she said. “And I’m sure this has nothing to do with the kiss you two shared, either.”

“ _What_?!” Keith said, whirling to face her entirely, his face paling as he stared at her with wide eyes. “How— how do you know about that?!”

His mom shrugged. “We could see you two on the screen when Allura called you. She didn’t speak up until you stopped.”

Mortification seemed to ooze through every single one of Keith’s cells, making his shoulders crawl up to his ears as every inch of his body surely grew red. “ _Everyone knows_?!” he hissed, except it came out more like a high-pitched squeak instead.

Krolia winced sympathetically. “We were waiting to congratulate you two,” she said. “Except we all kind of clued into the fact that maybe congratulations weren’t yet in order when you two, you know. Didn’t talk.”

“I can’t believe everyone knows,” Keith whispered to himself, horrified.

“We were bound to find out eventually,” Krolia said, as if _that_  was supposed to make Keith feel any better. “It’s not like you two were going to be able to keep your relationship a secret forever.”

“We’re not in a relationship, though. Lance doesn’t… He doesn’t feel like that about me.”

For a moment, Krolia stared at Keith, looking bewildered, before she laughed. It was loud enough that it drew the attention of everyone else, still standing around at the entrances of the various lions, and embarrassing enough that Keith’s Galra ears decided to pop out. And what was with that?! Usually they only showed up when he was super comfortable!

“Stop!” Keith hissed — actually hissed, this time, thank God. Krolia did stop, but she was still shaking her head disbelievingly, still smiling at Keith like he was an idiot.

“Honey, you don’t kiss someone like that when you don’t feel anything for them. And even without the kiss, any one of us could’ve told you how obvious his feelings are for you. And yours for him.”

“I’m not obvious,” Keith protested immediately, his voice hushed, before the rest of her sentence seemed to register in his brain and his breath was stuttering out of his chest. “Wait, are you serious?”

“You need to talk to him,” Krolia said, looking at Keith sternly. “Just tell him how you feel. Don’t beat around the bush.”

“Okay,” Keith muttered.

“You’ll be fine,” Krolia said softly, her hand falling on Keith’s shoulder, and he smiled up at her for only a moment before she was shoving him backwards, in Lance’s direction. “Now _go_.”

Keith had been planning to procrastinate this conversation with Lance for as long as he could manage, but with Krolia glaring at him like that, he didn’t think he could manage it for very long at all. So instead, he started walking in Lance’s direction, going red all over again as Hunk looked up at him, immediately went rigid, and said a quick goodbye to Lance before immediately spinning around and walking away.

Lance realized the reason for Hunk’s departure when he looked around in confusion, spotting Keith and going pale. Keith didn’t lose his courage, however, still heading straight for Lance and stopping in front of him before he had a chance to bolt.

“Keith, hi!” Lance said, in that classically anxious voice of his.

“Lance! Keith! We’re going to the market — see you in an hour!” Allura called in a rush, and at once, the entire team turned and fled. They speedwalked away, sure, but there was no denying that they were fleeing.

“What— why would they leave us?!” Lance screeched, staring off after their team with his mouth gaping.

“Because they know we need to talk.”

“How would _they_  know we need to talk?” Lance scoffed, before, “I mean, um. We need to talk?”

Keith crossed his arms, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Talking about the way he felt about Lance. Like _that_  was something people actually did.

“Yes,” Keith said, despite the entire rest of his being seeming to chant, _no, no, no!_  “About, um. About our—”

“Listen, dude,” Lance interrupted, because he was always interrupting people and he was the _worst_. “Don’t worry. I know it was just a kiss. I know it doesn’t mean anything.”

“ _No_ ,” Keith said, with enough feeling that Lance stopped his stuttery, rambly way of speaking and looked up at him, eyebrows raised in surprise. “I mean, it _did_ mean something. To me,” Keith added, a bit quieter. He felt kind of like he couldn’t breathe, like maybe he should just lay down on the ground and close his eyes and ignore everything that was happening. Instead, he stopped staring at his feet and forced himself to look up at Lance’s face, which had gone kind of slack with surprise. A great sign, surely.

Keith cleared his throat. “I, uh— I have feelings for you, so. I probably shouldn’t have let you kiss me, but I did. Sorry.”

Lance was still horribly, utterly silent. He looked like a machine that’d been powered down. Keith resisted the urge to smack him a few times and see if he came back on.

Still, the atmosphere was growing steadily and more horribly awkward, and so Keith shoved his hands into his pockets, puffed out his cheeks, and blew the air back through his mouth. “Okay,” he said, his voice horrible quiet and thin. “I’m just gonna go now—”

“Wait!” Lance shouted, snapping out of whatever glitch or funk he’d found himself in as he lunged forward, hands latching onto Keith’s shoulders impossibly tight as he stared into Keith’s face desperately, much too close for comfort. You know, unless he was planning to kiss him. “I like you too!”

And Keith knew Krolia had just told him as much, but that didn’t mean he’d _believed_  her. And so of course he was standing there now, floundering, because the guy he was obsessed with was staring at Keith just like Keith was surely staring at him, and now Keith was feeling like he needed a few slaps, because he was pretty sure he’d powered down too.

But then he remembered the weird radio silence Lance had put them through and he booted right back up. “But then why were you so weird about it?!” Keith demanded. He should probably just be kissing Lance, should probably be jumping up and down with him or, or holding his hands or something, but that wasn’t _Keith_. He needed to hear things. Needed to understand. And right now he was still so confused.

“I was just overthinking,” Lance muttered, shaking his head as he thought about it. “It was dumb, really, but I was just—” and then he flushed suddenly, and his eyes darted to the left, staring at his lion instead of Keith. “Well, it doesn’t really matter.”

“What?” Keith said, because he was confused and that was a word that always seemed to suffice in times like these. “It does matter,” he said sternly, because damn it if he wasn’t curious now.

Lance let out a sigh, his shoulders caving inwards as he said, “It was my vision.”

Panic exploded through Keith. What had Lance seen in his vision?! Was it of them? Was one of them hurt? Dying? Dating someone else?!

“I saw us kissing in your lion,” Lance elaborated. “In my vision. And so I thought that that was it, you know?”

“Wait, _that’s_  what you saw in your vision?” Keith demanded, feeling a little lightheaded at the thought. He could remembered how Lance had looked after seeing it, all happy and quiet about it. And he’d stayed up that night, hadn’t he? Had been suspiciously unable to sleep.

“Yes,” Lance groaned. “Shut up about it, okay?”

But Keith was grinning, feeling weirdly giddy and light and _excited_. “I can’t believe this,” he said, and he wasn’t talking about Lance’s vision anymore. He was talking about everything, about how it was all turning out right now, and how he couldn’t have tamped down his smile even if he’d wanted to.

“Yeah,” Lance said, “me neither.” They stared at each other like that, just for a few seconds, and then a sharp giggle was bursting out of Lance, and Keith was laughing too, feeling shocked and stupid and delirious.

Keith didn’t even notice Lance stepping closer as he was laughing, but suddenly Lance was entirely in his space, their faces mere inches apart as one of Lance’s hands snaked around his waist, a hand pressing against the small of his back. Keith’s arms wound around Lance automatically, before Lance could even say, “I’m gonna kiss you now, okay?”

Keith just nodded in response, too overwhelmed to actually manage any words, and then Lance’s lips were on his, the kiss short and chaste before Lance was pulling away just so he could grin.

Lance’s head ended up falling onto Keith’s shoulder, his arms still holding him close as he started laughing into the material of his jacket. “Dammit,” he said. “How long could I have been doing that, huh?”

Swallowing down his embarrassment, Keith said, “A _long_  time.”

Lance picked his head up, staring at Keith in amazement for a moment before he licked his lips, and Keith’s eyes followed that movement.

“We have to tell everyone,” Lance said.

“What?” Keith mumbled, dazed.

“We have to tell everyone,” Lance repeated, and then he took a step back from Keith, the two of them no longer touching, and Keith’s head miraculously cleared.

“Okay,” he said.

“I’m gonna tell them first,” Lance declared, and with that, he spun around and took off like a shot

Keith wasted only a moment sputtering in outrage before he was chasing after him, shouting, “Like hell!” at his boyfriend’s heels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FORGIVE ME NOW????
> 
> :]


	17. day seventeen: washing something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith's relationship is going great!

Lance liked to think his life wasn’t one giant, unpredictable mess, but then something like _this_  happened. Like, Lance found a magic flying lion or crossed into an alternate dimension or had his boyfriend get sucked into a flower.

Yes. A flower.

It was Pidge’s screech and the sudden absence of Keith at his side that alerted Lance to the fact that something had happened, and turning to his left revealed the fact that a ginormous flower beside Lance was _moving_. As if it were _chewing_.

“What?!” Lance said, because his brain was kind of fumbling for an answer as to what exactly was going on. You’d think he’d stop being surprised by the weird things that happened on the variety of planets they visited, but nope. Lance somehow found a way to be shocked and bewildered every time.

“Keith!” Pidge shrieked. “In the flower! Get him out!”

All at once, Allura, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance descended on the flower, tugging at its petals and trying to get it to release the struggling black paladin.

This definitely hadn’t been a part of Lance’s plans for the day. He’d been hoping to get to spend some alone time with Keith, because while it was exciting that they were boyfriends, they’d barely gotten the chance to actually _be_  boyfriends.

After kissing on that market planet, Lance had raced Keith to tell their friends the good news. Keith had ended up winning that race solely because he was a terrifying muscle machine with way too much stamina for any one person to have, but it was still Lance who’d told the team. Keith had fallen silent at Lance’s side, uncharacteristically shy as Lance had revealed their relationship.

Everyone had been beyond excited for them, and Pidge had said something sarcastic about it being time after having seen them kiss — “Wait, what?” Lance had said. “I’ll tell you later,” Keith had murmured back — but that’d been it. They’d held hands, albeit a bit shyly as they’d walked around the market, and barely twenty minutes later they’d been forced to separate, ushered back into their lions.

Today was the first time they’d had a chance to see each other in person since then, which had been almost an entire week ago. And talking to your boyfriend was a bit daunting when you knew he had two family members accompanying him at all times. Lance found himself losing his personality entirely whenever he clicked over to Keith’s comms, afraid he’d say something incriminating otherwise.

_“Hello, Keith. How do you do on this fine day?”_

_"Why the fuck are you talking like that?”_

_”I have no idea what you mean. Whatsoever. Ta ta!”_

Yeah, it was a problem. Lance just wanted to be able to tell Keith when he was thinking about him (always) and about how cute his smile was (so cute). He wanted to tell him every little thing that was on his mind, but knowing their conversation had an audience made Lance flush, feeling like everything he wanted to say way too trivial.

And sure, he’d talked to Keith before, knowing Shiro and Krolia were there, but that was before they’d been dating. That was before them and the _entire team_ , apparently, had seen him macking on Keith through the screens. Which Lance still kind of wanted to die when thinking about, by the way.

So Lance thought it was pretty understandable that he’d been excited about today. They’d stopped at the equivalent of a space gas station only a few hours before, knowing they’d wanted somewhere to rest and spend the night, having not gotten a particularly good night’s sleep in what felt like much too long.

“But… our lions don’t need fuel,” Lance had protested as they’d flown their lions to a stop at the refueling station.

“Right you are, number four! But we’re not here for fuel, we’re here for a map!”

“Oh, okay,” Lance had said, accepting the explanation well enough. But then, “Wait — _Keith’s_  number four, Coran.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, number four! Keith's taller than you now, making him number three.”

“ _What_?!”

Now, Lance was thinking the destination Coran had picked wasn’t such a good one after all, seeing as a flower had decided to eat his boyfriend.

“Why! Won’t! It! Open!” Hunk demanded. He’d taken to beating the flower with a stick, which was more disconcerting than it was helpful. Keith was still in there, after all, and now he wasn’t just getting eaten by a flower, he was also getting beaten by a stick.

“That’s it,” Lance growled, and he yanked his bayard off his belt and felt it transform into his broadsword.

“Woah, Lance, be careful with that!” Allura said, obviously thinking Lance was about to run Keith right through. Instead, he hacked his sword through the giant stem at the top of the flower, making the bulbous, people-eating part fall to the forest floor and spill open, revealing Keith in a rush of some gross flower fluid.

“Keith?” Lance said, ducking down and shaking his shoulder. He pulled a face as he touched the sticky, goopy substance all over Keith, who was still scarily still. “Allura? What should we do!?” he demanded, when his shaking failed to wake Keith.

“Oh no…” Allura muttered under her breath. “I think I recognize this kind of flower. That substance is acidic. It’ll devour Keith if we don’t get it off of him.”

“ _What_?” Lance screeched, looking up at Allura in horror. “Then what are we waiting for?! Come on!”

“Slow down!” Allura insisted. “It’s not something that’ll happen anytime soon, it’d just be better if we got the substance off him as quickly as possible. It has a chemical in it that puts its victim to sleep, which is why Keith wasn’t struggling inside there.”

“That’s so fucking creepy,” Lance muttered, and making a face, he bent down and scooped Keith’s disgusting slime-covered body into his arms, grunting with the weight. “Where to?” he huffed.

“We passed a river just a little bit ago, let’s take him there,” Allura instructed, and Lance stumbled after everyone in the direction of the river. They all refused to help him carry Keith, seeing as then they, too, would have to rinse off (bastards) and so it was with many breaks and breathers that they finally arrived at the river, where Lance set Keith’s sleeping body on the edge of the sandy bank.

“Okay,” he panted, hands on his hips and goop on his forehead, from where he’d brushed his hair out of his face. It was starting to get kind of long. “How are we going to do this?”

“Get in there and wash him off,” Pidge said with a flippant gesture, as if this were the plan they’d all already agreed on.

“With his clothes on?” Lance said.

Pidge scoffed. “Obviously not. They’re soaked with the plant’s saliva, you need to get it all off him.”

Lance tried to ignore the way his face was steadily reddening. “But — I can’t do that!” Lance protested. “He’ll be naked!”

“He’s _your_  boyfriend.”

“Barely!” Lance squeaked. Sure, they’d been dating for a week, but they’d only really seen each other for an hour during that time. And they’d only even kissed twice. He couldn’t see Keith naked! That was like, running the bases before he’d even swung the bat!

Surprisingly, it was Hunk who intervened. Even more surprising, he was on Pidge’s side. “Think about it, Lance,” he said. “Do you really think Keith would rather one of us do it?”

Lance paled. Keith would probably hate that way more. Stupid Hunk was stupidly right.

With a groan, Lance hung his head.

“Keith should wake up after you get most of the saliva off his body,” Allura informed. “That’s when you’ll know you’re almost done.”

With that, Lance’s teammates oh so graciously traipsed back up the slope and into the forest, giving them ‘privacy’.

Lance grumbled angrily under his breath as he pulled Keith’s slimy shirt away from his body. They probably wouldn’t even have to deal with this if they’d been wearing their paladin armor, but it wasn’t like they could be wearing it constantly. It wasn’t very comfortable and they weren’t about to sit in it in their lions day after day. And they’d expected this planet to be friendly, too, so…

“Stupid plant,” Lance muttered. He averted his gaze as he undressed Keith the rest of the way, and then tried to carry him into the river with his eyes closed, which didn’t work at all. He tripped over a rock and dropped Keith back into the sand. It was probably a good thing, honestly, as otherwise Lance would’ve splashed into the water fully clothed, so he stripped down to his underwear and went back for Keith, mentally apologizing for leaving him face down in the sand.

Everything was a lot easier when Lance managed to get him out into the river. It got deep pretty quickly, though Lance stopped once the water was up to his waist, afraid he’d take another step and plummet into some underwater abyss. Alien planets were tricky with that kind of thing.

“Gross,” Lance grumbled as he sank down a bit in the water, trying to rub the plant’s saliva off Keith. It worked pretty well, though that didn’t make Lance any happier about the situation. And it definitely didn’t help that Keith had, like, washboard abs. Who would’ve thought the first time he touched Keith naked would’ve been when he was unconscious?

Lance tried to be methodical about getting the gunk off Keith. He scrubbed over his chest and shoulders and back before, with a shrug, dunking his head under water. The dunk didn’t wake Keith up, unfortunately, but it did make the saliva on his face come off easier, so that was good. Not actually wanting to drown his boyfriend, though, Lance took to splashing handfuls of water over his face and head instead.

It was when Lance was thoroughly scrubbing Keith’s hair, having scooted to a bit of a shallower area so he could sit Keith down in the water instead of clinging to him to keep him upright, that Keith woke up. Lance barely realized it happening at first, too determined with trying to scrub his hair clean, not wanting to accidentally miss a spot and be the reason his boyfriend’s hair disintegrated in the night. But then Keith let out a quiet, content little groan, and Lance’s fingers trailed to a stop in his hair as Lance stood there, listening.

He started up again, softer this time, less rough, and Keith hummed, his head bending down so Lance could instead get to the sensitive area at the nape of his neck.

“You waking up?”

“Mmm.”

“You remember what happened?”

“Mmm.”

Lance decided to take that as a _no_  and continued washing Keith’s hair, waiting until he was a bit more awake before engaging him in conversation.

“Wait, what?” Keith said, and Lance gathered all of his hair onto the top of his head and pressed it into a mohawk.

“You got swallowed by a plant,” Lance explained, satisfied with his work. “And if we don’t finish scrubbing all this plant saliva off you, it’ll eat you anyway.”

“ _What_?”

“C’mon, start scrubbing your legs. I haven’t gotten them yet.”

A pause. “I’m naked.”

“You sure are,” Lance said, glad at least he wasn’t alone in this situation anymore. He dunked his own head under water then, remembering he’d touched his face at one point and not wanting to wake up with more facial injuries than he already had.

Lance went right back to helping Keith after that, though, forgetting that this entire situation in general was kind of awkward now that Keith was awake. He wasn’t thinking when he leaned forward, reaching up to scrub behind Keith’s ears at the absent though, _Did I clean back here already? It’d be just my luck to be the reason my boyfriend goes deaf._

He didn’t even realize Keith was feeling out of place until he was plopping down in the water behind him, rubbing up his back and down his arms like he’d been doing for the past half hour, paranoia making it so that he felt like he had to keep cleaning and cleaning and _cleaning_  lest he be the reason they wake up tomorrow to a Keith puddle.

It wasn’t until he had both his arms around Keith, his hands running methodically over his stomach and chest, that he realized Keith was frozen still. And then something in Lance’s brain clicked on and he froze, too, embarrassment racing through him as he realized how _suggestive_  this all was.

“Um,” he said, his voice suddenly a much higher pitch. “Sorry! I was just, um. I can stop!”

Keith’s shrugged, his shoulders and back moving against Lance’s chest as he did. He cleared his throat before saying, “It’s okay. Except I think I’m all good up there. My legs kind of burn where the saliva is, so if you wanna help me out down there…”

“Yeah, sure!” Lance said, eager to relieve whatever tension was building between them _immediately_. He stood up and splashed through the water, circling Keith and plopping down across from him. There, he pulled one of Keith’s legs into his lap and started getting the goop off his calves while Keith got to work on his thighs.

Finally, after another half hour, Keith was murderous-plant-saliva free and Lance was way too knowledgeable about the body of the boyfriend he’d yet to get intimate with. Back on the shore were two towels and changes of clothes, dropped off for them God knows when.

“Please never get eaten by a plant again,” Lance huffed, tossing Keith a pair of boxers as he toweled off his own hair.

“I’ll try my best not to,” Keith grumbled, dressing quickly behind him. By the time they were both dry and fully dressed, Lance was feeling both mentally and physically exhausted. Mostly, he was just glad Keith was all right and not plant food, which must’ve been why he ended up stumbling into him and wrapping his arms around his waist.

Keith huffed out a laugh, hugging him back as Lance leaned more weight onto him. “I missed you,” Lance sighed, nuzzling his face into his shoulder.

“How long was I out?” Keith said, sounding incredulous.

“Mmm. An hour?” Lance said. “But that’s not what I was talking about. I just missed you.”

“Oh,” Keith said, his voice softer, quieter. “I missed you too.”

“Yeah?” Lance said, straightening up and pulling away a little, so that they were nose to nose.

“Yeah,” Keith said, shrugging nonchalantly. “A bit.”

Lance snorted, and then, before Keith could point out the fact that he’d snorted, he pressed in closer to him, parting his lips and angling his head until he could feel Keith's mouth, warm and soft against his own. He hummed into his mouth, a hand coming up to pluck through the wet strands of hair behind his head, having long since fallen from its mohawk state.

“If you let me braid this now, it’ll be wavy when you undo it,” Lance said winningly.

“Exactly why I’m not letting you braid it now,” Keith said, pushing past Lance and marching up the hill. Lance spun after him, latching onto his hand before he could get far.

“It’d look cute!” Lance said, practically begged, but Keith just shook his head. Still, he didn’t drop Lance’s hand, and when Lance squeezed, Keith’s fingers trapped between his own, Keith squeezed back.


	18. day eighteen: one of them is sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voltron goes clubbing!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a general warning for someone vomiting towards the end

Keith tried to pretend like he wasn’t buzzing with excitement as they descended through the Zelefner atmosphere and landed on the surface of their planet. It was just that he hadn’t gotten to actually enjoy the last time they’d landed on a planet, seeing as he’d been _eaten_  by a _plant_.

They’d all thought that that would’ve been the end of it, but soon after they’d gotten back to the rest of their group, still staked out by the lions, they’d actually _found_  the natives they’d originally been looking for. And the natives didn’t want to hear hide nor tail of how he and Lance had scrubbed his body entirely clean in a river. No, they insisted on taking Keith and popping him into their version of a cryopod, uttering a thousand apologies for having let that happen to him in the first place.

So while everyone else had gotten to enjoy the rest of their time on the planet, Keith had simply slept through it all and been shoved back on his lion by the time he emerged from the cryopod, squeaky clean.

Luckily, Allura hadn’t been too dead-set on making them fly relentless after that, so they were landing again already, the very next night.

“ _I gotta say_ ,” Lance said over the comms, letting out a low whistle. “ _You picked a good planet, Allura_.”

They’d been directed down to a landing pad by the planet’s inhabitants, which happened to be right in the middle of a city. A city which was full of bright, strobing lights and music so loud it could be heard from within their lions. Keith could feel the vibration of some far-away bass through his seat.

“ _Well, now I’m not too sure_ …” Allura said tentatively, but when Lance’s response came, it was quieter, as if he wasn’t speaking into his helmet anymore.

“ _Don’t be ridiculous, Allura! This is great_ ,” Lance said, his words sounding weirdly labored.

Curious as to what exactly was going on in the Red lion, Keith clicked on the video chat. An image of Lance immediately popped up, showing him shirtless and struggling into a pair of tight pants.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked.

Lance’s head jerked towards the screen where he then took in Keith for half a second before he screeched. “ _A little warning, dude_!” Keith flushed, but Lance didn’t even seem to particularly care, jumping up and down a few times as he pulled his pants the rest of the way up and buttoned them securely. “ _And I’m getting dressed, obviously_.”

“In _what_?” Keith asked as Lance pulled a shirt out from one of his bags that looked _see-through_. He didn’t think he’d ever seen that shirt of Lance’s before.

“ _Um, duh? Clubbing attire_!” Lance said, before leaning in close to the screen, his eyes wide with excitement. “ _Ooh, Keith! Come to my lion! I have a shirt you could wear_!”

“We’re going clubbing?” Keith said, still trying to get caught up with what exactly was happening.

“ _I am_ so _down_ ,” Pidge said, her face popping up onto Keith’s screen as well. Then Allura’s appeared.

“ _I’m not so sure that’s a good idea_ ,” she said sternly. “ _You’re still quite young_ —”

“ _Old enough to risk my life for an inter-galactic war, though_ ,” Pidge interrupted. “ _I think I can handle a little alcohol, Allura_.”

“Oh God,” Shiro grumbled from somewhere behind Keith, and Keith turned around to look at him, finding him rubbing his temples in agitation. Shiro probably thought he was going to be looking after a bunch of drunk paladins tonight.

“ _Keith_!” Lance shouted, making Keith jump as he turned his attention back to the screens. “ _Come on, get over here! I’m not joking about that outfit!_ ”

“I gotta go,” Keith said somewhat absently as he stood up and wandered towards Black’s exit. It was with a modicum of trepidation that he climbed up the entrance of the red lion, letting out a yell when Lance grabbed his arm and yanked him in at the last second.

Lance’s outfit was a lot easier to see in person than over the screens. Now, Keith could tell that Lance wasn’t wearing black jeans but _leather pants_. Tucked loosely into his pants was his see-through black shirt.

Keith could see his nipples.

“Wow,” Keith managed intelligently, after having looked Lance up and down for a good thirty seconds. Some time between Keith exiting him lion and entering Lance’s, Lance had slicked his hair back, and it looked _good_.

“ _Wow_!” Pidge imitated in a nasally voice, and Keith went bright red, spinning to glare at the screens in embarrassment.

“Hey! He’s allowed to admire his boyfriend!” Lance said defensively, although it didn’t really help with Keith’s mortification. He wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist, pulling him into his side protectively.

“ _Yeah, yeah_ ,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes. “ _You got any other cool clothes in there_?”

“Um, _yes_?” Lance said incredulously. “Anyone who wants a cool clubbing makeover head on over to Red pronto.”

Hunk decided to dress himself, saying he wouldn’t risk Lance’s wardrobe even if he could fit into it, and it took a lot of persuasion on Pidge’s part in order to get Allura to leave her lion and come to Lance’s, but in the end, she did.

And Lance seemed to be like, a fashion genius. He had all these clothes packed away that Keith had never seen him wear, although he had been gone at the Blade of Marmora for a while. Maybe Lance had been wearing them then.

He zoned out kind of horribly as Lance got to work on Pidge and Allura, flitting through his lion and running up and down Red’s insides in an attempt to get to his other things. At one point he shouted, “Sorry Kaltenecker!” after Kaltenecker let out a rather sour sounding ‘moo’.

But it was hard to concentrate, okay?! His thoughts kept tumbling off into an abyss whenever he saw Lance. It was like his brain just stuttered to a stop at the sight of Lance in tight pants and a shirt that wasn’t _really_  a shirt. He might as well put out a ‘gone for lunch!’ sign for his brain until further notice.

“What do you think, Keith?” Lance said, and Keith jerked, his head whipping upward to make eye contact with Lance.

“What?” he said.

Across the cockpit, Pidge snickered, and Keith glared at her heatedly.

“They look good, don’t they?” Lance said, ever patient, and Keith finally took a moment to actually take in his friends’ appearances. Allura was wearing black skinny jeans, her shirt obviously one of Lance’s despite the fact that she was rocking it possibly better than Lance ever had (sorry Lance). It was a button up, but she hadn’t buttoned it up all the way, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail at the top of her head, spilling in curls halfway down her back.

Pidge, on the other hand, was wearing a white pair of skinny jeans. They must’ve been hers, seeing as they actually fit her, but her shirt was also Lance’s, a tank top with the sleeves cut off, leaving the sides swooping low and revealing much of her sides.

They looked good. Keith repeated this sentiment to Lance, who beamed proudly, clapped his hands, and turned to face Keith. “Now it’s your turn,” he said, getting a glint in his eye that looked way too excited for Keith’s tastes.

“Um,” Keith said.

“I have just the thing!” Lance said over his shoulder, because he’d already turned and sprinted out of the room. The next thing Keith new, Lance was back and shoving an item of clothing into his arms before prodding him further into the lion to change. “Show us when you’re done!” Lance sang.

It was only one thing, so Keith silently thanked the universe for not having to attempt to put on a pair of pants like Lance’s. At first glance, it seemed like Lance had just given him a normal top, but then he held it up and it unfolded itself and it was… not a shirt. Or not an entire shirt, at least. It was definitely missing like, half the material.

“Uh, Lance?” Keith called tentatively. “I think something happened to your shirt.”

“Just put it on!” Lance demanded, and Keith shook his head, not thinking Lance realized what he meant. When he pulled it on, the fabric was almost artfully jagged at the bottom, but it was still much too short. A bunch of his stomach was showing, and his cheeks reddened at the thought of stepping out to show everyone.

“Uhhh…” Keith said, pulling at the hem uncomfortably. “I think there’s something… wrong.”

Just like that, Lance was popping into the back of the lion, his eyes taking a slow tour over Keith’s body. “Nope,” he said afterwards, his voice a little bit huskier. “Everything looks perfect.”

“But — the shirt’s too short!” Keith protested immediately.

“It’s just a cropped shirt, Keith,” Lance said nonchalantly. “Your jacket’s the same thing.”

Keith’s eyebrows furrowed. “No it’s not.”

Lance blinked once. Twice. “What?” he said.

“It’s just too short,” Keith said with a shrug. “But it was cheap at goodwill, so. I bought it.”

“No, Keith, it’s short on _purpose_. It’s stylish.”

Keith looked down at his shirt. He could see his bellybutton. “No,” he decided.

“Just show everyone else,” Lance pestered, and he grabbed Keith’s hand and dragged him out to the cockpit. “Someone tell my boyfriend he looks hot?” Lance said, making Keith flush and cross his arms over his chest uncomfortably. This pulled up the material of his shirt, though, and so Keith quickly put his arms back down.

“You look amazing!” Allura said excitedly, Pidge nodding alongside her.

Keith would’ve continued to argue, would’ve turned right around and put his normal clothes back on, but then he turned and saw Lance looking at him the same way he kept looking at Lance. He looked vaguely dazed, his eyebrows raised as his eyes traced over Keith’s stomach, the rest of his brain obviously having checked out of the conversation.

“Fine,” Keith huffed. “I’ll wear it.”

Lance blinked, apparently coming back to himself, and he looked up at Keith with a grin. “Good.”

—

Keith wasn’t one for clubs. He’d never been to a party back on Earth, and he’d tended to stay away from the alcoholic drinks at the banquets he’d visited with the team before, having seen the stupid stuff it’d made Lance say to whatever pretty aliens were around him.

And Keith had still kind of expected this to be true. Today. He’d thought he would go into some club with the rest of the team and cling to Lance, feeling awkward and out of place until he was eventually holding Lance up and helping him back to his room later, where he would then lay him down on his side and kiss him goodnight.

Instead, at the beginning of the night, Lance said, “You wanna get a drink with me?” and for some unknown reason, Keith said _yes_.

And the drinks here actually tasted good. _And_ , surprisingly enough, Keith found after drinking one or three, he didn’t really feel so uncomfortable or out of place at all. The music was loud, sure, but it was _good_. He liked feeling the pounding bass through his entire body, which bounced kind of absentmindedly wherever he stood, usually beside Lance.

“You’ve got some moves,” Lance had joked earlier in the night, and Keith had rolled his eyes, feeling easy to laugh and lighter than usual, like if he jumped he might float away.

He’d gladly accepted more of those drinks whenever they were offered, finding that somehow they made a good time even gooder. Right Lance?

“Right Laaanse?”

“Right babe,” Lance said, holding Keith even closer where they were stood in the dance floor, aliens jumping around and dancing sporadically all around them. It was a fast song, but they were dancing slow, just swaying in each other’s arms.

Keith, finally registering what Lance had said, shivered against him. “Oh,” he said quietly. “I like when you call me that.”

“You do?” Lance said excitedly, grinning.

“Mmhmm,” Keith said, blinking slowly as he stared at Lance. God, he was blinking _so_  slowly. It was weird. And fun. “I like your lips,” Keith announced, because it was true and Lance deserved to know it.

Lance laughed for some reason, his eyes looking all gooey and soft. Like chocolate in chocolate chip cookies. Or a marshmallow. “You do, do you?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, nodding now. This felt _important_. “They’re so… soft. Like your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“Yeah. I like them too. _Fuck_ , Lance, I like you so much,” Keith huffed, letting himself flump into Lance’s chest. Lance laughed again, his arms winding around Keith’s waist as he took to swaying them once more.

“Well I like you too,” Lance said, a hand snaking up under Keith’s dumb short shirt, his fingers running up his spine. Goosebumps chased Lance’s fingers all across his skin.

“Yeah?” Keith said, smiling stupidly into Lance’s shoulder.

“Yep. A lot. I even like that dumb mullet of yours.”

Keith scoffed, except then he was laughing, and his face was still pressed into Lance’s shoulder, so he kissed it, and then Lance’s collarbone. He kissed Lance’s neck and his jaw and his lips, clumsily, because he _could_. Lance was his boyfriend and he was allowed to do that.

“You certainly are,” Lance hummed against his mouth, and oops. Keith kept doing that. Just… talking. On accident.

“I’m gonna count every single one of your eyelashes,” Keith decided.

“Oh my God, Keith’s drunk as fuck,” someone snorted, and Keith turned, outraged, to face Pidge.

“No I’m not!” he protested, except Pidge was doubled over, giggling.

“You so are,” she wheezed.

Keith didn’t know why, but that really got to him. Sure, he’d had a few drinks, but he was just having fun! He was just dancing with his boyfriend. “I’m _not_ ,” he protested again, except this time his voice wavered, and his vision was getting pretty blurry and, oh God — were those tears in his eyes?

“Aaall right,” Lance said, wrapping an arm around Keith’s waist, his fingers nice and warm against his skin. “Why don’t we go back to the hotel?”

“That’s what you want to do?” Keith asked.

“Yep. Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, nodding and nodding and nodding, and then he was being pulled through the crowd. Lance was so nice. And comfortable to lean on.

They pushed through a door and the air got cold, the sounds quieter, and Keith could actually hear himself humming, letting his head loll against Lance’s shoulder.

“You good there, babe?” Lance said, squeezing his side a bit tighter. Keith grinned, opening his eyes to smile up at the night sky.

“Yeah,” he breathed. And then, “You’re so pretty, Lance.”

“Thanks, Keith,” Lance said, before pushing open a door and leading Keith into the giant house they were pretending to live in for the night.

Lance started leading Keith through it and then they were stepping into a room with two beds, Shiro already occupying one of them. Oh yeah, they were sharing rooms here. Stupid Zelefnerians. Couldn’t even give them enough rooms.

“Woah,” Shiro said from his place on the bed, putting down the book he was holding. “I definitely thought this would be the other way around.”

“I wanted to let him have fun,” Lance said, and Keith cooed, pressing his lips against Lance’s neck. “I’m just gonna help him get ready for bed.”

“You do that,” Shiro said, sounding amused.

“We should hold hands,” Keith said, and Lance complied immediately, making Keith grin as he was led over to the little overnight bag he’d left in here before they’d gone clubbing. Lance ducked down and started digging through it, pulling out a pair of pajama pants and a big t-shirt. He helped Keith change into them, letting Keith put both his hands on his shoulders as Lance held his pants open, Keith having trouble actually getting his legs into the holes.

Finally, though, he was dressed. And his shirt was the right length!

“My shirt’s long,” Keith said happily, and Lance cupped his cheeks, his eyes _stupid_  and _soft_  again.

“It sure is,” he said.

Keith sighed. “I _love_  your lips.”

Across the room, Shiro snorted, and Keith watched as red rushed into Lance’s cheeks. “Thanks, buddy,” he said. Keith nodded. And then he stopped nodding, abruptly.

“Oh no,” he said lowly.

“What? What’s oh no?” said Lance.

“Oh… no,” Keith repeated, shaking his head with his eyes closed as something inside him felt really, really _wrong_. “Gonna barf.”

“Oh no!” Lance repeated, and then he was dragging Keith into the bathroom by his hand — he really did love holding Lance’s hand — and a toilet was in front of his face, Keith holding onto its sides before he emptied his stomach into it, gasping into the porcelain.

“Urghh,” he said, groaning as Lance rubbed his back soothingly.

“You’ll be okay,” Lance murmured. “It happens to the best of us.”

“Gross,” Keith said, and Lance’s hand moved away from his back and up to his hair. He started petting through it, which felt good enough that some of the residual pain Keith was feeling drifted away, though he remained hunched over the toilet pathetically. Lance touching Keith’s hair reminded him of when they’d been in that river together, Lance having combed through his hair then, too.

“I like it when you touch me,” Keith informed him. Lance had touched him a lot, that day.

Lance made a weird sound behind him, and then his head thumped into Keith’s back. “You’re killin’ me, Smalls,” he said. But then he sat up again, and his fingers’ movements through Keith’s hair felt more methodical. The next thing he knew, the hair tie Keith kept around his wrist was being tugged off before Lance tied his hair up for him.

“There,” he said proudly. “Now your hair’s out of your face.”

“Great for throwing up,” Keith pointed out.

“Exactly,” Lance said, and then Keith’s stomach was seizing and he was clutching the toilet again, Lance’s hand resuming its movement over his back.

After that, though, Keith felt a whole lot better. He brushed his teeth with Lance’s assistance and then crawled into bed, sighing happily when Lance came back into his room, having left to get a big silver bucket.

“In case you can’t make it to the bathroom,” he said, setting the bucket on the floor by the bed. “You mind if I sleep here, Shiro?”

“Not at all,” Shiro said. “As long as you deal with him if he throws up again.”

“I’m _not_  gonna throw up again,” Keith protested.

“That’s good,” Shiro said absently from across the room. Lance climbed into the bed behind Keith, shuffling under the blankets and throwing an arm around Keith’s waist.

“Let me know if you’re not feeling so good, okay?” Lance murmured, a hand coming up to stroke Keith’s hair behind his ear.

“Okay,” Keith said, letting his eyes droop closed as he intertwined his fingers with Lance’s, still resting on his stomach. “G’night Lance.”

“Night Keith. Sweet dreams.”

Keith smiled as Lance pressed a kiss to the back of his neck, squeezing his hand a little harder as he drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, allura is wearing one of those famous lesbian outfits from twitter, thank you very much


	19. day nineteen: spoiling one another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro's so done with them tbh.

Lance hummed as he pushed the spatula through the vegetables, bobbing his head and bouncing his hips from side to side as they sizzled. Across the room, there came a _ding_  as this planet’s version of toast popped out of the toaster, because yeah, toasters were universal. Who knew?

Still humming, Lance danced across the kitchen tile on socked feet, hissing as he grabbed the still too-hot toast and dropped it onto a plate.

“What are you doing?”

“Agh!” Lance yelled, jumping in surprise and somehow jerking his arm so that the toast flung across the room. Hunk snatched it out of the air by the grace of God and crossed the room, re-depositing it on Lance’s plate.

“You really don’t belong in the kitchen,” he commented.

“Fuck you,” Lance laughed, bumping his shoulder as he passed him and piled the foreign vegetables onto the plate as well. “I’m doing just fine.”

Hunk plucked a vegetable off the plate and popped it into his mouth, humming pleasantly in surprise.

“ _See_?” Lance demanded.

“I’m just curious why you’re making breakfast, is all,” Hunk said nonchalantly. “You never eat the vegetables _I_  cook. Although, you know who _does_  eat the--”

“Shut up, Hunk! Yes, I’m making breakfast for Keith. Is that what you wanted?”

“Yep,” Hunk said happily, before snatching another vegetable and strolling out of the kitchen. Lance just grumbled under his breath as he put what was hopefully butter on the toast, grabbed the now done cooking bacon-like meat, and headed towards Keith and Shiro’s room. He’d slipped out early enough that neither of them had been awake, though he’d expected that on Keith’s part. Waking up early after a night of drinking was something Lance never attempted, thank you very much.

The door to the bedroom was ajar, and when Lance stepped into the room, it was to find that Shiro had got up and gone sometime within the last hour. That was fine with Lance, seeing as this meant he’d hopefully get to lie in bed with his boyfriend for a while. The night before had been great, much of it passing with the two of them in each other’s arms, swaying to some unknown beat, but Lance was literally always willing to press up against Keith even more.

It’d been hard to separate himself from Keith that morning, it taking almost everything in Lance to scooch out from underneath Keith’s head, which had been resting on his chest. Now, Keith was facing the opposite direction, his hand curled in front of his face and his lip pouted out in his sleep.

Lance settled into the middle of the crescent Keith was making with his body and perched the tray he’d prepared on his lap, reaching out to shake Keith’s shoulder lightly. He watched as Keith’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion before his eyes blinked blearily open, his mouth turning downward as he frowned up at Lance.

“Huh?” he said sleepily, blinking as he tried to wake up.

“I made you breakfast,” Lance said, reaching out to brush the backs of his knuckles against Keith’s cheek, moving to tuck a stray piece of hair behind his ear immediately afterwards. “You hungry?”

“Yeah,” Keith decided after a second, his eyes drifting shut for a moment as he leaned his head into Lance’s hand. He started to sit up after that, though, wincing and putting a hand to his head about half way up.

“Your head hurt?”

“Yeah.” Keith frowned. “Ow.”

“Do you remember last night?” Lance asked, pressing a glass of water into Keith’s hand, which he gratefully took a sip of.

“Yes,” Keith said confidently, finally sitting up the rest of the way. He sat up like that for about two seconds before he slumped into Lance’s side, groaning unhappily. Lance laughed, pressing a kiss against his temple and sliding the tray into Keith’s lap instead.

“Eat up, it’ll help,” Lance promised. And then, “So you remember throwing up, then?”

Keith, with a pepper-like vegetable halfway to his mouth, froze. “I threw up?” he said incredulously, glaring down at his fork. And then his eyes widened as he remembered. “Oh God,” he said. “ _You_  were there.”

Lance scoffed. “I comforted you, you bastard!”

“I never needed you to see me throw up,” Keith groaned, but he didn’t move away from Lance’s side, and he even leaned into him when Lance spread his hands out on the bed behind them.

“So do you remembeeer,” Lance said, tilting his head to the side. “Dancing with me?”

“Yes,” Keith scoffed, spearing something yellow that probably tasted disgusting but seeming to enjoy it anyway. “We danced, like, the entire time.”

“True,” Lance conceded, though he doubted Keith remembered it all as clearly as he did. Doubted he had the pristine and wonderful memories of the two of them wrapped in each other’s arms, Keith all soft and pliant and doe-eyed in Lance’s arms. It was awesome.

And God, Keith had just been… totally loose. No filter. Drunk, basically, but Lance had loved it. Keith’s face had lit up every time he so much as caught sight of Lance and he’d been exhilaratingly affectionate, pressing kisses into Lance’s skin practically whenever he could manage it. Lance remembered Keith telling him the cutest, stupidest things. " _Did you know you have a…_ perfect _… nose?_ ” Or, _“Kiss me again Lance. You’re really, really good at it.”_

“Do you remember telling me how much you love my lips?”

Keith didn’t look up at Lance, meaning all Lance really got to see were the tips of his ears going pink, but he shook his head. Lance decided to stop torturing him, then.

“Is it good?” Lance asked, bumping the tray with his hand, and Keith nodded quickly, obviously relieved at the subject change.

“Really good,” he said, looking at Lance as he bit into the toast. “Did you make it?”

“All by myself,” Lance said proudly, before crawling behind Keith and sprawling out on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head as he watched Keith pick at the rest of his breakfast. Keith didn’t finish it, and Lance couldn’t tell whether it was because he was actually full or because he wanted to cuddle with Lance, seeing as he dove right into his arms after setting it aside. Cuddling was even better when they were both awake, because Lance got to _touch_  Keith. Got to trail his fingers over his hips, bare from where his shirt had ridden up, and through the hair at the nape of his neck, though he touched Keith’s hair carefully, making sure not to mess up his masterpiece.

Speaking of, it took Keith forever to notice it. It wasn’t until he reached up to brush a phantom strand of hair out of his face that he frowned, realizing his bangs weren’t hanging in front of his eyes at all. And then his hand patted further up his forehead and into his hair, where his fingers came in contact with the cutest ‘do he’d ever sported.

“When did you braid my hair?” Keith said incredulously, fingers trailing over the french braid more intently. Lance smacked his hand out of the way before he could mess it up, grinning wildly at Keith having finally noticed.

“When you were throwing up,” he said proudly. “You look adorable, by the way. I was right.”

“You sneaky asshole,” Keith snorted, shoving his face into Lance’s chest with a laugh.

“You kept saying no whenever I asked to braid it!” Lance protested. “The opportunity presented itself. I had to take it.”

Keith grumbled into his chest but didn’t respond otherwise, and Lance eventually had to take more drastic measures. He was forced to flip the two of them over, coerced into pressing his lips against Keith’s and shoving his hands into his hair, finally messing up the braid he’d so proudly done.

Lance got the reaction he wanted, Keith responding to his kiss immediately, his breath rushing out of his nose as he hurried to kiss Lance back, to run his hands down his sides. Keith groaned into his mouth, one hand sliding over to press against the small of Lance’s back. The two of them were lined up, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip, and Keith’s mouth was open and pliant under his, accepting Lance readily as he deepened the kiss. He felt Keith’s fingers clench in the back of his shirt, his breath hitching as his hips pressed upward into Lance’s, and—

“We’re leaving in 30 minutes.”

“Agh!” Lance said, rolling swiftly off Keith and tumbling painfully onto the floor. A pillow flung itself off the bed and smacked into Lance’s face, though Lance wasn’t entirely sure the reason.

“Shiro!” Keith said. “Yeah, sure! Okay!”

Lance shoved the pillow off himself, getting to see Shiro’s entirely unamused expression for half a second before he left the room, not closing the door behind him.

“Why’d you throw a pillow at me?!” Lance demanded.

“I don’t know! I panicked!”

Lance sat up, glaring at Keith, but then his lips wobbled and his expression broke back into a smile. Keith’s hair was all around his face, Lance having thoroughly messed it up during their kiss. It was a mess of waves and honestly looked adorable, though he doubted Keith would ever think so.

“C’mon,” Lance sighed, pushing himself to his feet and holding out a hand for Keith. “Let’s get ready to go.”

Keith groaned, letting himself be pulled up only to collapse into Lance, his forehead bonking against Lance’s shoulder. With Keith pressed against him like this, he just wanted to hold him tighter, wanted to kiss him again, harder. Wanted to press him against a wall and touch every inch of him that he could.

They’d never kissed like that before, so intensely and so… horizontally. It made Lance want to beg to stay another day, though he didn’t actually do that, pulling himself together and dragging Keith into the bathroom instead.

Keith’s eyes widened as he looked in the mirror before a disgruntled expression came over him. He immediately reached up, sweeping all of his hair back and wrapping it up in a bun at the top of his head.

“You’re no fun,” Lance pouted, crossing his arms as he stared at Keith

“I’m a little fun,” Keith grumbled in response, his eyes darting towards Lance’s in the mirror as he turned his head, checking out his bun from the side.

Lance scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, his entire body staying perfectly still for a moment, before he moved like lighting and his fingers were digging into Lance’s sides. Lance shrieked, batting Keith away and slamming his body into at least two separate doors as he escaped.

“Are you guys even packed yet?” Pidge complained as Lance raced past her in the living room, narrowly avoiding Keith’s devil fingers.

“Pack for us!” Lance called over his shoulder, otherwise occupied. Needless to say, Voltron was a bit late getting off the planet that day.


	20. day twenty: shopping together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance go on an innocent shopping trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: oh fuck today's prompt is shopping together?! i've already made them do that together like,,, seventeen times. how could i POSSIBLY spice this up  
> me: *writes this chapter*
> 
> enjoy

In recent days, Keith and Lance were chasing whatever alone time they could get. Any time their lions docked they were racing to be with each other, becoming almost shy and tentative with each other all over again after having been separated for however many days.

But then they’d start kissing, and they wouldn’t be able to _stop_  kissing, not until they realized they were actually on a planet full of Galra spies or Pidge walked in on them or there was an earthquake. Seriously. Keith was pretty sure the universe was trying to tell him to never take off his boyfriend’s pants, at this point, though that hadn’t stopped him from trying.

Lance was just as frustrated as Keith, more often than not pink-cheeked with his hair a mess. Keith was becoming particularly attuned to the feeling of Lance smacking his head against his shoulder and groaning, “ _Again_?”

And it wasn’t like they were constantly making out and trying to get naked under sheets and in closets and behind bushes. It was just that they seemed to have horrible timing. Nothing bad ever happened to them when they were cuddling on an alien beach (with acid water) or holding hands as they walked down the floating streets or Perome. Again, Keith was pretty sure the universe was out to get him. Or at least give him blue balls.

He kind of felt guilty about being so upset about it, too. They had bigger problems, like the fact that they kept running into random bouts of Galra more and more. It was unbelievably stressful, knowing they needed to land on a planet or fly through a sector and having no clue whether they were about to be surrounded by legions of Galra. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to their placement, either, though that definitely did nothing to ease Keith’s paranoia — they were closer to Earth than they’d ever been since first leaving it, and it didn’t sit well with Keith that there were Galra here, even if they were still galaxies away.

So now, whenever they did manage to find a friendly and actually Galra-influence-free planet, it wasn’t exactly a time for them to rest. They spent their days flying only to land and spend their nights planning. There were more communication towers in this galaxies, meaning they knew their messages were actually getting through to the coalition, which meant they felt they actually had to _do_  more. Keith’s brain felt wrung out and exhausted, the lot of them trying to figure out the Galra’s plan without any actual insight of those plans, and at night it was the most he could do to collapse in a bed and manage to actually brush his teeth first.

Lance was pretty good about making sure he did, though. Only because Lance was also pretty good about sneaking into Keith’s bed.

Usually, whichever planets they ended up staying on provided them with a nice place for them to stay, whether that was in a castle or palace or nice house in the city. And these places usually came with enough rooms for each of them, though that didn’t stop Lance from ditching his in order to sneak into Keith’s.

“My room has a draft,” Lance had said the first time it’d happened. “Mind if I sleep with you?”

Keith had blinked, eyes wide and something weird stirring in his veins, but he’d shaken his head. “No, that’s fine,” he’d said, and Lance had crawled right into his bed.

And Lance’s list of excuses was neither short nor lacking in creativity. _”There was an alien spider in my room.” “Someone was having loud sex in the room above mine.” “I didn’t like the view.”_

That last one had made Keith scoff. “The view from our rooms are exactly the same.”

“Nuh-uh,” Lance had said stubbornly, already stripping off his shirt and climbing into Keith’s bed, pulling him back against his warm chest and shoving his hand up his shirt to splay his fingers over his stomach. “In this one I can see _you_.”

Thankfully, Lance had stopped with the excuses, just winking or smiling or kissing Keith on the cheek whenever he slipped into his room, the rest of their friends having gone to bed. And Keith had to admit, cuddling with Lance while he slept was one of his life’s greatest pleasures. He spent every moment in his lion looking forward to the next planet they stopped on, knowing he would get to spend the night in Lance’s arms.

And, okay, if Keith and Lance were spending so many nights together, why didn’t they just fool around _then_? But they were still both exhausted by the time they actually  _got_  time to be together, given all the official meetings and coalition work they were now doing. Plus… well, Keith wasn’t actually too sure about this one, but he was pretty sure Lance was trying to make their first time special. He’d seen him sneakily buy flowers and such only to discard them when what looked like some free time they were going to be able to have was interrupted, because of course it was. Always.

Still, Keith wasn’t complaining too much. They were getting closer and closer to Earth and Lance’s excitement was tangible. Plus, whatever time they did get to spend together was wonderful, even if the rest of their friends kept leering and making faces at them whenever they wanted to hang out alone.

“We’re just going shopping!” Lance insisted now, his hand untangling from Keith’s so he could gesture dramatically instead.

“Suuure you are,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You can come with us, if you really want,” Lance said, and all their friends started shaking their heads. Okay, Keith knew practically all of them had walked in on him and Lance making out pretty heavily, but the way they were all acting was as if they’d seen the two of them doing, like, the _real thing_. They just wanted to go on a walk together!

“You kids have fun!” Allura said sarcastically, waggling her fingers at them, and Lance imitated her but with his words barely distinguishable, his face scrunched and his eyes squinted mockingly.

“Come on, Keith,” he said immediately afterward, wrapping his arm around Keith’s waist with a ‘hmph!’ “We don’t need to hang around these _losers_  anyway.”

“Ooooh, sick burn,” Hunk teased, and Lance stuck out his tongue before spinning Keith away and dragging him out of the house they were currently staying in. The house was right on a street filled with little shops and Keith could tell Lance had been itching to explore them ever since they’d landed here. He had his money pouch dangling from his hip, filled with coins as he was similarly filled with the intent of buying Lance something equally as cool as the knife he’d gotten Keith.

And Keith had thought before that Lance was really good at shopping, that he was good at finding the fun stores to check out, the ones that would be the most entertaining to them. But after this shopping trip, Keith would be ready to revoke that thought for the rest of time.

“I wonder what this one is,” Lance said, staring up at the building before them. It had a dark exterior and the door was propped wide open despite the hot day. Even from here, they could hear music spilling out of the store. “Wanna check it out?”

“Sure,” Keith said, and he and Lance walked hand in hand into what they would soon learn was a sex shop.

The entrance was unobtrusive, just a short hallway decorated with pillows and quilts on the walls, but the second they stepped past that…

“Oh my God,” Lance said, horror evident in his voice as they came to a stop in the chamber beyond. The entire room was filled with sex toys, which were presented from floor to ceiling. There were dick-like objects sticking grotesquely out of the walls and Keith gaped around the room in horror, neither him nor Lance saying a word as they ripped their clasped hands away from each other.

“Welcome!” a chipper voice said, and both Keith and Lance jumped, neither of them having noticed the alien standing literally in the middle of the room. Keith didn’t really blame either of them, though. Their eyes were very obviously… otherwise occupied. “What can I help you with today? Pain? Pleasure?”

“ _Pain_?” Keith squeaked incredulously, and the girl nodded eagerly, gesturing towards a side of the room that harbored what looked like weapons. Keith didn’t look at any of it too closely.

“No, no, no,” Lance said hastily, shaking his head and waving his hands. “We’re not here for pain.”

“Pleasure, then!” the girl said happily. “You’re both of the external gender, are you not? Do you two have a preference?”

Keith’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. External gender? Preference? “Uh, men?” he tried. He wanted to grab Lance’s arm and just yank them out of there, but he felt trapped. By societal convention.

The girl laughed, as if Keith had made a silly joke. “I meant what’s your preference in bed? We have a wide selection of toys, tailored for both those who give and take.”

Keith’s face grew steadily redder. He avoided looking at Lance, who similarly avoided looking at Keith. “Um, no,” Lance ended up saying, which didn’t really make sense, but Keith found himself nodding in agreement. No was _right_. “We don’t— we… don’t…”

“That’s fine!” the girl said quickly. “If you’ll follow me over here, we have—”

Keith pretty much blocked out the rest of that entire interaction. Neither he nor Lance wanted to be there, but they couldn’t seem to actually escape the store. In the end, they walked out with Keith holding a plastic bag, the two of them wide-eyed and terrified. Keith didn’t even know what was in the bag.

“We’re never telling anyone about this,” Keith said, slapping the plastic bag against Lance’s chest before shoving his hands into his pockets uncomfortably, Lance now holding the bag.

“Agreed,” Lance said stiffly, looking around as if for some idea of what to do with the toy they’d just purchased.

“I’m serious, Lance,” Keith threatened. “Don’t, like, tell this story in a couple months as a funny anecdote. We tell _no one. Ever_.”

“Agreed!” Lance said again, and without finding something to do with the bag, he shoved it into his jacked and zipped it all the way up. He was already sweating. “Come on,” Lance said uncomfortably. “Let’s go back.”

They didn’t hold hands, the both of them barely able to look each other in the eye, much less touch one another.

“How was your shopping trip?” Shiro asked casually once they walked back into the house. _Too_  casually, Keith was pretty sure.

He scoffed loudly. “Wouldn’t _you_  like to know,” he said, because he was panicking, and apparently that was what he said when he was panicking.

Shiro’s eyes widened. He looked taken aback. “Don’t talk to your brother that way,” Krolia cut in sternly, and Keith’s eyes shifted to her anxiously.

“Nothing happened!” Lance said loudly into the silence of the room without any prompting, and then he grabbed Keith by the arm and dragged him out of the room, the plastic bag in his jacket jostling loudly with every step.

The second they were in their room (read: Keith’s room) Lance ripped the thing out from under his clothes, waving it through the air wildly. “ _Where do we put this_?!” he demanded. In all his shaking, the item flew out of the bag and sailed across the room, landing neatly on the bed.

“Ah!” Keith yelled, before waving his hands at the thing and saying, “Get it! Get it!”

“I’m getting it!” Lance shrieked, before he grabbed it (it was still in its box, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying), and gestured at Keith with it. “Where should I put it?!”

“I don’t know!”

Lance looked around wildly before rushing towards Keith’s bag. He unzipped it, ignoring Keith’s plentiful amount of protests, and shoved it all the way to the bottom. “There,” he said breathlessly, standing up and looking vaguely proud of himself. “It’s hidden.”

“It’s in my bag.”

“It’s _hidden_  in your back. The next time we’re in space we just need to… eject it,” Lance said. Keith nodded seriously. Lance nodded seriously back.

“Let’s never speak of this again,” Keith decided.

“Deal,” Lance said, before collapsing onto Keith’s bed with a sigh. “And let’s never have sex.”

Keith gaped. “Well… I don’t know about _that_ ,” he said.

Lance snorted, his gaze shifting towards him and turning oddly sappy. “I’m joking,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But seriously. Let’s save it for something special.”

Keith smiled. “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you ever write a chapter and you're kind of like, "what did i just write????"
> 
> that was this


	21. day twenty one: buying flowers for the other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aliens have weird flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is the result of me writing at 1am running on nothing but the power of mountain dew and determination. thanks for being patient with this later-in-the-day update!

“Has anyone seen Keith?” Lance asked, not for the first time. This was the third room he’d popped into, thanks to his friends having scattered themselves throughout the living rooms provided to them on planet Xenotile.

“Nope,” Hunk answered casually, not even bothering to look up from his tablet. Lance was too anxious to notice the suspicious behavior.

“I haven’t seen him anywhere,” he continued worriedly, his fingers now fiddling with the zipper on his coat. “And Shiro and his mom say they haven’t seen him either, and neither have Allura and Romelle, and you guys don’t know, and _I_ don’t know—” Lance rambled, his words picking up speed as he really got going. They’d only been on this planet for a short while now, one that thankfully didn’t have too extensive a government, so they were having some downtime instead of contacting the coalition and talking plans with their allies. And, given they had downtime, that usually meant Keith was, you know. With Lance.

“Chill out, Lance,” Pidge said, sparing a glance at him for the first time. “I’m sure he’s fine.” Lance finally caught onto the oddly knowing tone of her voice and he squinted at his traitor friend.

“What do you know?” he demanded.

“I don’t know anything,” Pidge said. “Except that you’re a worry wart.”

Pouting, Lance crossed the room and plopped into an armchair, glaring at nothing in particular. “I’m not a worry wart,” he grumbled.

“Uh, you kind of are,” Hunk said, smiling at Lance sympathetically. And, okay. So _what_  if Lance was a _little bit_  worried about Keith on occasion? He was just being a good boyfriend!

He could admit he was maybe getting a bit obsessive during battles, but other than that…

“Yeah,” Pidge chimed in. “Like remember when we were fighting that battlecruiser yesterday?”

Lance crossed his arms, glowering. _Yeah_ , but _other than that_ —

“I think you got hit, like, seven different times,” Pidge continued. “How many times did Keith get hit, Hunk?”

“Hmm, I’d have to think about it,” Hunk said, playing along.

“All right, you guys,” Lance said, trying to diffuse their momentum.

“Oh! That’s right!” Hunk suddenly said. “He didn’t get hit at all! Lance kept getting in the way first!”

“Hey!” Lance protested. “At least we know chivalry isn’t dead, all right?!”

Pidge snorted. “Taking a giant laser to the face for your boyfriend _is_  pretty chivalrous, I gotta admit…”

 

Keith had been all stuffy and annoyed at Lance afterwards, insisting Lance couldn’t keep doing that. “ _If I’m supposed to get hurt, let me be the one that_ gets hurt.”

" _No way_ ,” Lance had said, crossing his arms. “ _You’re the leader of Voltron, dude. You need to be in tip top shape.”_

“ _S_ _o do you_!” Keith had protested, glaring hotly. “ _I’m serious. Don’t get hurt for me_.”

Lance had rolled his eyes, and Keith had glared at him threateningly, but he’d let that be the end of it. And then Lance had plopped onto the bed and pushed Keith onto the ground in front of him. It was starting to become a little routine of theirs, Lance playing with Keith’s hair after battles. It was relaxing for the both of them, giving Lance something easy and methodical to do with his hands and just feeling good in general on Keith’s end. And by the end of it, Keith’s hair was usually pinned up in some elaborate braid, which he always managed to complain about despite Lance being pretty sure he was growing to like it.

Plus, the biggest benefit of braiding Keith’s hair was getting all his obtrusive bangs out of his face. Lance’s new favorite thing was pressing kisses to Keith’s forehead, which Keith protested vehemently, always trying to shove Lance away, though Lance was pretty sure that was only because he knew his blush was completely visible without any hair to hide it behind.

“But seriously,” Lance said now. “Do you guys know when he’s going to be back?”

Pidge made a sound like, “Iunno,” with a shrug of her shoulders and Lance huffed, melting into the couch heavily. He just wanted to cuddle with his boyfriend, was that so much to ask?

Apparently it was, because the rest of the day didn’t go quite as Lance had planned.

He hung out with Pidge and Hunk for the next hour, trying to seem totally cool and casual while actually having his brain bounce all around his head, silently demanding answers. By the time Keith actually got back, Lance had exhausted every casual topic of conversation he could think of, both Hunk and Pidge having become visibly annoyed with him. And then Keith strolled into the room all casual-like, his hair still braided from the night before ( _cute_ ) and a bundle of flowers in his hand. He noticed his audience immediately, though his gaze quickly locked onto Lance and they just stared at each other for a moment, both blinking at each other. Lance’s eyes flicked from Keith’s to the flowers in his hand and back again.

“Are those for me?” he asked, surprised.

Keith blushed fiercely, his head dipping down as if to get his bangs in front of his face except they were all braided back. Bless.

“Don’t mention it,” he grumbled, because he was truly a romantic, before holding out the flowers well before he was near enough for Lance to take them. He then walked stiffly across the room, arm still extended, and shoved them into Lance’s arms before crossing his own tightly. “The vendor guy said couples enjoy this kind, so.” He was blushing still, and his eyes kept straying away from Lance’s, despite how cute the gesture of buying him flowers really was.

“That’s adorable,” Lance said, reaching out to kick him in the ankle before pressing his nose into the bouquet. They smelled _heavenly_ , Lance having to force himself to pull himself away to look back up at Keith. “Holy shit, have you smelled these?”

“Yeah,” Keith said. “Pretty much the whole way back. I thought you’d like it, too.”

“You two are sappy as fuck,” Pidge spoke up across the room, and both Lance and Keith stiffened in place, remembering the audience they had.

“You’re just jealous,” Lance said, because he was an actual seven year old with no better comebacks to be had. Keith then plopped down into the armchair beside Lance, despite there being not that much room to begin with, and Lance scooted over as much as he could to give him whatever room he could manage. Lance ended up with an arm around Keith and the flowers held carefully in his lap, though he kept raising them up to his nose to take a good whiff, seemingly unable to stop.

Soon enough, Pidge and Hunk once again became preoccupied with the activities they’d been doing before Keith had entered the room, and that’s when Keith turned his head to look at Lance. “You really like the flowers?” he asked quietly, his face having lost that hardened, scowly look it took on whenever he was feeling embarrassed and defensive.

“I love them,” Lance replied, grinning as Keith slowly smiled back. He smacked his lips against Keith’s cheek, before settling for just leaning their heads together, pulling his tablet onto his lap and letting both him and Keith look at it at the same time.

And Lance thought that that would be it, you know? He’d spent an hour panicking over Keith’s whereabouts and anxiously awaiting his return. Keith had shown up with a bundle of flowers in a surprising display of affection. The end, right? Cute and sappy and enough to make Lance want to hug Keith close and kiss him all over and tuck his flowers into a vase and cart them all around the galaxy with him.

But _noooo_. The universe had _different_  ideas. Ideas like making something uncomfortable and prickly expand underneath his skin, making his chest tighten and his breath becoming oddly short. Lance began to feel really uncomfortable, though he wasn’t entirely sure _why_.

And then Keith shifted beside him, and something foreign and pleasurable exploded through his skin at the touch of their sides alone, and Lance’s breathing picked up as his head whipped towards Keith’s, his eyes wide and fearful. That’s when he realized Keith looked just as uncomfortable as he did, his eyebrows furrowed and his lip bent into a frown.

“Keith,” Lance said, his voice coming out gruff. “Do you feel… I don’t know, like…”

“ _Yes,_ ” Keith said before he could even get it out, and then they were both staring at each other warily, unsure both of what they should do and what was even going on.

“I think we should go see Coran,” Lance said quickly, and he stood up from the chair, Keith hot on his heels.

They were barely out of the room when Lance heard Pidge say from behind them, “What’s their problem?”

Lance’s brain was a mantra of ‘ _Coran, Coran, Coran_ ’. You know, in between the ‘ _Keith, Keith, Keith!_ ’s. And also in between the, ‘ _God, I really want to kiss him. Push him against the wall. Stick my tongue in his mouth._ ’s.

And okay, Lance wasn’t really thinking much about Coran at all. In fact, he was pushing Keith against the wall and doing just what he’d wanted, his hands sliding down his sides and pulling his hips closer, into Lance’s. They both groaned at the contact, and Keith moved his hips away only to press them back again, making Lance huff a sigh against his lips, hold him tighter.

Wasting no time, Keith’s hands slid down his shirt, sneaking under the waistband of his jeans, and for a moment, all Lance could think was _yes! Yes, yes, yes_! But then, somehow, his actual, real thoughts punched through. The ones centered around how much he cared about Keith, how much he wanted to do this _right_. Wanted to take him on stupid dates and get him stupid presents before finally doing it all the proper way. In, like, in a bed and stuff. With no time limit. Just him and Keith and the soft sheets provided to them by some mega-rich emperor, probably.

It was with more self-restraint than Lance had ever thought possible that he pulled away from Keith, panting heavily and pressing his forehead against his shoulder. “Coran,” he said.

“It’s _Keith_ ,” Keith said, sounding offended.

“ _No_ , we have to go _see_  Coran,” Lance said, and Keith made a breathless ‘oh’ sound.

Lance would’ve grabbed Keith’s hand and tugged him back down the hall in Coran’s direction, but honestly he wasn’t sure if he could handle touching him right now. God, this was so weird. And Keith’s poor flowers were destroyed, too, the stems crunched in Lance’s hand and the petals crumpled from being pressed between their bodies, whenever that had happened.

It was with relief that they finally bursted into the living room Coran was in, although he was accompanied by Shiro, Allura, and Keith’s mom.

“We need help!” Lance demanded.

“What?” said Allura, eyes widening at Lance’s urgent tone.

“Feeling weird,” Keith managed, and Lance didn’t blame him. Talking wasn’t coming easy to him, either, and he’d somehow drifted closer to Keith already, was pressing against him, an arm winding around his back.

“What kind of weird?” Coran asked.

Lance ignored him, having noticed a beautiful and pristine spot on Keith’s neck that was just begging to be kissed. And so he kissed it, leaning forward without another thought and letting his lips do all the work, Keith letting out a breathy sound in return.

And then someone was hooking Lance beneath the arms and he was being dragged away, a string of complaints escaping him as he got further and further from Keith.

“Lance, what are you holding?” It was Krolia who asked it, somehow successfully managing to capture Lance’s attention, and he held the flowers back up to his face with a dopey smile, taking a deep inhale of the delightful scent.

“Flowers,” Lance said happily. “Keith got them for me. He’s so cute.”

“Oh no,” said Coran, and his eyes locked somewhere behind Lance. Lance then realized it was Allura holding him away from Keith. And when had Shiro gone and restrained Keith, too? “Where exactly did you get these flowers, Keith?”

“From a vendor,” Keith said, sounding angry, and her jerked in Shiro’s grasp, trying to pull out of it and only succeeding in having himself pulled tighter into Shiro’s chest.

“I see,” Coran said. “That’s… unfortunate.”

“What is?” Shiro asked, turning to look at Coran from behind Keith.

“A lot of the flora in this particular galaxy have special... properties. Ones such as these, for example.”

“What kind of properties?” Shiro asked warily.

“Judging by our two idiots here, I’d suggest this one contains properties of the nature of sexual attraction.”

“Allura,” Lance said importantly. “Look, Keith’s hair is coming out of his braid. See it? He needs me to fix it.”

“His hair isn’t coming out of his braid, Lance,” Allura answered.

“You’re blind,” Lance decided. “He obviously needs me. His _hair_  needs me.”

“We should separate them,” Krolia said. Usually, Lance thought of her as a pretty good voice of reason, but now he just thought that he hated Keith’s mom and also adult supervision. He couldn’t even remember why he and Keith had come down here anyway. Life had been so much better when it’d been just the two of them pressed up against that wall.

The next thing Lance knew, he was being dragged off down the hall and shoved into a small bedroom. No one would even listen to his complaints, his suggestions, and he heard the lock click from the outside. A sound the mix of offense and outrage escaped him as he pounded against the door. “You can’t treat me like this!” he yelled, immediately pressing his ear against the wood in an attempt to hear any signs of life beyond it. Nothing.

And it was obvious to Lance that he had to get back to Keith or die trying, so he strode confidently across the room and threw open the window. He glanced down, shrugging at what looked like a five story drop, and stepped out onto the windowsill.

It was then that his door opened, revealing Keith with his cool new knife in hand, probably having picked his own lock with it. Or maybe he’d just threatened everyone into letting him come here.

Lance wasted no time in scrambling back into the room, slamming Keith against the wall and moaning into his mouth. “I missed you,” he panted.

“Missed you more,” Keith said back.

“For fuck’s sake!” someone else yelled, and Lance suffered the pain of being separated from Keith for a second time. This time their enemy was that little gremlin Pidge, accompanied by Hunk the traitor. Now Hunk was the one to grab Lance and he held him in place as Pidge somehow managed to manhandle Keith out of the room.

“Lance, focus,” Hunk said, shaking Lance a little. “This is just the pollen affecting you. You want it to be special, remember?”

“Everything with Keith is special,” Lance grumbled, but then Hunk was shaking his head, squeezing Lance’s arms tighter.

“Come on, Lance,” he said. “You were telling me all about it, despite how I told you not to.”

“Yeah, you’re a bad friend,” Lance decided absent-mindedly. He could now neither see nor hear Keith out in the hall, which was a tragedy.

“I’m only saying this once, so listen up,” Hunk said importantly. “You and Keith are gonna do it nice and sweet in some king-sized bed when you’re not tripping on alien sex pollen, you hear me? Now snap out of it and sit down until it wears off.”

It didn’t work. Not _perfectly_ , anyway. But something in Lance’s brain definitely clicked back in place and he was struck with the epiphany of _oh yeah!_  Because while he wasn’t entirely sure he knew what he was doing, he knew he wanted to make it special for Keith, and that didn’t include the two of them humping against a wall while high on horny pollen.

“Fuck,” Lance said, and then Hunk sat him in a chair and Lance didn’t get up and climb out the window, surprisingly. Instead, he suffered and imagined all the things he could do with Keith and did exactly none of them, somehow staying sane enough to just suffer through it instead.

It was hours until he was normal again, the flowers having been taken far, _far_  away from the house they were staying in, and he was honestly exhausted by the time Keith slumped into his room, looking similarly weary.

“Hey,” he muttered, plopping into Lance’s lap and pressing his forehead against Lance’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Lance returned, reaching up to rub Keith’s back. Honestly, this entire thing was a feat. If they’d ended up in this position a mere hour ago Lance wouldn’t have been able to help himself.

“Sorry for getting you date rape flowers,” Keith said, and Lance snorted out a laugh, his arms tightening around Keith’s back.

“Thanks for trying to do something romantic for me,” he returned, pressing a kiss into his hair.

“Yeah,” Keith scoffed. “Last time I attempt _that_.”

“Don’t say that!” Lance said, nuzzling further into Keith. He pressed a kiss directly under his jaw. “I like candlelit dinners, you know…”

“Noted,” Keith said gruffly, his head tilting to the side to give Lance better access, and then—

“We should probably stop!” Lance decided, leaning back and pushing at Keith, making him stand up at lightning speed. Keith nodded jerkily at the instruction and then Lance was nodding as well, simply because it seemed right. As one, they turned and made their way out of the bedroom, walking kind of stiffly as they went to join their friends in unspoken agreement, realizing they still needed a bit of supervision.


	22. day twenty two: competing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance learn all about the silent treatment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another late late night/early early morning chapter. tomorrow i go back to not having activities during the day (lol) so that chapter'll most likely be up at a more normal time !!

Keith huffed as he leaned against Black’s thrusters a little bit harder, forcing her to pick up speed. He wasn’t particularly anxious to get to their next destination, seeing as things seemed to have a way of going wrong when they were anywhere but flying in their lions, but he couldn’t help the burst of extra speed.

As he thought about it, Keith realized maybe it wasn’t even the different planets’ fault. After all, they weren’t currently on a planet and he could think of _now_  being an instance when something was wrong, but — no. It wasn’t wrong. It was perfectly fine the way it was. Everything was fine.

“Keith,” Shiro said from behind him, his voice having taken on that tone he got whenever Keith was especially antsy and susceptible to blowing up. “I think maybe this has gone on long enough.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Keith said, resolutely ignoring the muted icon of the red lion on Black’s screens. If he-who-must-not-be-named really wanted to talk to him, there were overrides in all the lions, but then Lance would lose and they’d be done with this stupid competition.

And fuck, Keith thought bitterly, there was nothing stopping him from _thinking_  about the idiot, right? It wasn’t like anyone would know!

It was just that — Keith hated this competition almost as much as he wanted to win it. Almost.

It’d all started because Lance was an idiot. Adorable and endlessly kind and thoughtful but also an _idiot_. And Keith was going insane.

“ _I_ _’m thinking about trying to make some sort of pudding_ ,” Hunk had said days ago, pulling open the cabinets and peering in at the ingredients inside them back on whatever planet they’d been on. Keith must’ve blocked it from his memory. It _was_  a pretty traumatizing event, considering it’d started this whole mess.

“ _Oh that’d be nice_ ,” Keith had said. “ _Lance loves pudding_.” It was something he knew from some conversation he’d had with Lance once, probably about Earth and the things they were excited to experience again. Lance liked pudding. So what if Keith knew that?

But somehow, what he’d said had elicited a scoff from Hunk.

“ _What_?” Keith had said, because it wasn’t like he’d been able to miss the massive scoff Hunk had just made.

 _“Nothing,”_ he’d said. _“It’s just... you and Lance can barely go a sentence without mentioning each other."_

“ _That’s not true_!” Keith had protested.

“ _I_ _t’s a little true_ ,” Lance had chimed in, leaning against the counter all too happily. “ _I mean, you talk about me all the time, babe_.” Keith had flushed. Calling him ‘babe’ seemed to be Lance’s favorite thing. Apparently he’d said something about liking it that night he’d been drunk, and since then Lance had clung to the pet name like a lifeline.

But Keith had ignored his blush and the simultaneous light and floaty feeling invading his insides. Instead, he’d glared at Lance before saying, “ _You talk about me_ way _more_.” He was sure of it. He’d heard Lance bring him up in conversation practically a thousand times by now. He enjoyed Lance thinking of and talking about him, of course, but his appreciation of this fact was pretty much squandered in the face of Lance claiming it didn’t happen all that often after all.

Lance had rolled his eyes. “ _Not true_ ,” he’d said.

_“It is! I could not talk about you at all, if I wanted!”_

“ _Pfft,_ ” Lance had said. “ _Suuure_.”

Keith had laughed. “ _I’m serious_ ,” he’d insisted.

 _“Yeah? Well I bet I could not mention you for even longer. I bet I could not even_ talk _to you for longer.”_

_“You’re on!”_

“ _Uhhh... Are you guys sure this is a good idea_?” Hunk had asked.

“ _Yep_ ,” Lance had said, and with that, they’d locked in their horrible fate. Keith was assuming Lance was suffering as much as him, anyway. All he really knew was that he missed Lance’s voice, missed his jokes and stories and sleepy “good morning”s. He missed cuddling with him. Missed kissing him.

Basically, Keith was bored of it all. And exhausted.

He ignored Shiro as he placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly. “Seriously,” he said. “You two have been doing this long enough. Neither of you are getting anything out of this.”

“Loser has to do whatever the winner says,” Keith said stubbornly, and Shiro sighed behind him, sounding tired.

“You look miserable,” he said plainly. “And honestly, I think this whole competition is distracting you.”

“It’s not distracting me!” Keith exclaimed.

It was distracting him. Not thinking about it was practically impossible and Keith had only grown more and more tense in the last few days. It was weird, seeing as he’d gone _years_  without dating Lance and now, after having only dated him for a little while, he realized he’d grown way too used to being with him. Way too used to the way Lance liked to rub his back as they were falling asleep. Way too used to the way Lance liked to play with his hair, and wake him up with kisses pressed against his skin, and rub his shoulders whenever he walked up behind Keith already sitting in a chair. He was way too used to be being with _Lance_.

Was it possible to go through withdrawals for a person?

If so, it was probably because of that that Keith messed up. It was with resignation rather than surprise that they fought off the fleet of Galra they happened to run into. This was something that happened too often for them to really be blindsided by it, and maybe it was because of the regularity of it all, the familiarity, that Keith ended up getting hurt.

He hadn’t been paying enough attention, had accidentally let himself fall into some sort of routine, because he somehow didn’t even notice something was wrong until it was almost too late.

“Lance!” he yelled. Lance was busy scattering the jets, keeping them from forming some sort of attack pattern, which was when the battle cruiser’s sights locked onto him.

Keith did it without thinking. One moment, he was staring wide-eyed at the charging laser, realizing Lance wouldn’t be able to maneuver out of the way in time, and the next he was flying into him as hard as he could, his lion effectively smacking Lance’s out of the way.

And then all he knew was heat and pain, followed by darkness.

—

“...ridiculous.”

“You just need to be patient.”

A scoff. “You seriously think I can be patient right now?“

“Just try, Lance.”

Keith frowned at the voices, it taking him a moment to realize he needed to open his eyes. He did so slowly, blinking at the light above him, and it took him too long to actually focus on the people in his room. They were gathered in a small circle at the foot of his bed, Lance with his back to Keith and his shoulders hunched in on themselves, talking pretty snippily to Hunk and Pidge, which was entirely unlike him.

“Lance?” Keith croaked, because honestly he was just glad Lance was okay, glad he’d managed to save him from that particularly nasty blow, and Lance spun around so quickly his shoes squeaked on the floor.

“Keith!” he exclaimed, rushing forward and grabbing for Keith’s hands at once. “How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Are you thirsty?”

“I’m fine,” Keith said. “A little thirsty.”

Lance helped him sit up and pressed a glass of water into his hands, letting him take small sips before handing the glass back to Lance, who put it on the nearby table. Lance pulled Keith’s hand up to his mouth, pressing his lips to Keith’s knuckles softly and just holding them there. And then—

“What the hell were you thinking?”

The soft moment was shattered. Lance was still holding his hand, sure, but he was glaring daggers overtop of their interlocked fingers, looking at Keith like he couldn’t wait to slap him as soon as he was no longer bedridden. “You can’t just jump in front of something like that for me,” he scoffed, shaking his head as he squeezed Keith’s hand harder.

Except Keith was having none of that. “You’ve done it for me!” he protested. “We were just talking about it the other day!”

“Yeah, and you told me not to do it anymore,” Lance said. “Double standards aren’t cool, man.”

Keith frowned. He _had_  gotten mad at Lance for continually interrupting the hits he was supposed to take. It wasn’t like Keith couldn’t take them, and he absolutely hated seeing Lance put in harm’s way, so it made sense. No wonder Lance was so mad at him now, especially since he was a tad bit more hurt than Lance had been. They must’ve had to take an emergency landing on some random planet.

Soon enough, Pidge and Hunk lost their patience, maneuvering Lance out of the way so they could hug Keith, and then everyone else was being summoned into the room, a hug-line forming beside Keith’s bed. Lance somehow wound up by Keith’s free side, perching on the edge of the mattress with one of Keith’s hands in his lap, which his thumb was stroking.

“So,” Hunk said suddenly, when the chatter in the room managed to die down a bit. “Who won?”

“Hm?” Lance said, distracted.

“The competition. You guys are talking to each other again. Who won?”

Keith and Lance looked at each other with matching expressions, both of them realizing at the same time that they’d completely forgotten about the stupid little bet they’d had going in the first place.

“Uh…” Lance said.

“Lance won,” Pidge suddenly piped up, grinning smugly. “Keith called out for Lance during the battle, so.”

Keith had half a mind to argue. To point out that that wasn’t exactly fair, considering he was the black paladin and kind of needed to communicate with his teammates during battle, but he just kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t worth falling into another competition for, not when he’d only just gotten back to having Lance normally.

“Whatever,” Keith muttered, ignoring Lance’s victorious grin. “Just tell me what you want me to do,” he grumbled, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room.

“ _Hmm_ ,” Lance hummed dramatically, even rubbing an invisible beard as he thought. Finally, he looked at Keith, saying, “Okay, I know what I want.”

Keith felt his jaw clench as he nodded stiffly. “Go ahead.”

Lance took his pointer finger and tapped it against his cheek a few times — right on top of his scar, now a light pink — and leaned toward Keith as he did. “Lay one on me,” Lance demanded, as if the request wasn’t obvious enough

Keith couldn’t deny the way his cheeks flushed — any kind of PDA had always been embarrassing to him — but he took the proffered out for what it was. He pushed himself forward a little, away from the mountain of pillows stacked behind him, and pressed a soft kiss right on Lance’s cheek. Lance was grinning widely immediately after, obviously overly pleased with himself, and his hand slipped back into Keith’s, squeezing it in a sort of silent greeting.

Honestly, Keith was just glad their competition was all over with, having been going out of his mind because of it. And Lance must’ve hated it just as much as Keith had, because he swore he could feel similar waves of relief emanating off him as well. Chatter in the room resumed, Keith catching a couple comments where he was pretty sure he and Lance were being made fun of, but he didn’t care. He was just glad to have Lance back, scooting over in his hospital bed to make room for him so he could lean against his side.

Keith ignored the comments about that one, too.


	23. day twenty three: being old together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance are bad at directions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk why i had such a hard time getting this chapter out today! i ended up taking a two hour nap, though that might just be bc the last two updates were at 4am...
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoy! i'm proud of how it turned out :)
> 
> ((((update: jsadfljk it was brought to my attention that shiro and krolia are always in the black lion with keith and i didn't even mention them last chapter lmao. uuhh they were Fine bc they were chillin in the downstairs part for some reason and the giant laser only hit keith okay continue on with your day))))
> 
> ((((((((i'll stop writing at 3 in the morning i promise)))))))))

Believe it or not, they were almost at Earth. Only a few day’s travel away.

Also believe it or not, they were lost.

“We need to go this way,” Lance said, one hand splayed on the right side of the map to keep it from rolling back up. Keith’s hand was holding down the other.

“No, that’ll just take us longer,” Keith argued, shaking his head as he did so. It was at times like these that Lance really wished they still had the castle and all its crazy tech. They could practically be like, ‘Hey Siri, what’s the fastest way to Earth?’ and the castle would be all, ‘Through this wormhole, my dudes, let me just bend some time and space for you’.

Man, Lance missed the castle. He also missed not having to be one of the know-how people of the group.

Before, navigating their way back to Earth had been almost entirely Allura and Coran’s thing, Krolia occasionally helping too when she recognized pockets of the galaxy from Blade missions and whatnot. But between one galaxy and the next, things had changed.

Not only were Allura and Coran just as lost as the rest of them, they were also unable to read any of the maps at the nearby fuel stations. They were no longer created and made for people like them, but for people like those from Earth and the galaxies around it. In the grand scheme of things, Lance figured neighboring galaxies were all _almost_  like a single country, if you had to put it into perspective. Allura and Coran were experiencing a bit of culture-shock (somehow more so than they did with the wide varieties of planets they visited).

Anyway, maps here were more human-brain centered. Lance didn’t know quite what it was about it, but neither one of the alien species currently traveling with them could seem to comprehend them. Lance didn’t really get it, but then again, he hadn’t been much help with reading any of the other maps they’d used to pick up, so maybe it was kind of the same as that.

“I’m telling you,” Keith said now, jabbing his hand into the map and dragging his finger along it. “This would be our fastest route back home.”

 _Home_ , Lance thought for a moment, a fluttery feeling in his chest. Some part of him had kind of been in denial about it this whole time, all ' _we’ll be sidetracked before we can get there’_  and ‘ _the Galra will intercept us somehow’_  but that had yet to happen. And — good news! — they hadn’t even run into any Galra for a couple days now, so maybe their chance encounters really _had_  been chance encounters. Lance was actually starting to believe he was going to make it home, going to get to see his family, if only Keith didn’t lead them astray _right into an asteroid field_.

“We’ll get killed going through that!” Lance said, leaning forward to gesture at the asteroid field, and — whoops. He’d let go of his side of the map, making the whole thing curl up next to Keith’s palm.

“Nice,” he said blandly.

Lance’s mouth dropped open. “Don’t take that tone with me—”

Someone groaned loudly and dramatically from behind them, the sound immediately followed by, “Oh my _God_.” Lance spun around, glaring at Pidge for the commotion. They were trying to concentrate here, after all.

“What?” he demanded.

“Could you guys be _less_  like an old married couple? Please?!”

Lance scoffed, offended. “We’re not!” he argued.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed, turning around to face Pidge and crossing his arms.

“Oh, wow,” Hunk said from beside her, his eyebrows rising in surprise. “They finally agree on something.” Pidge laughed. Lance decided the sound was grating.

“We agree on a lot of things!” he said, elbowing Keith in the side and jerking his head towards their friends. “Tell ‘em, Keith!”

Keith was already nodding, had been even before Lance had elbowed him. “Yeah,” he said. “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”

“Just yesterday you guys were arguing about what shampoo to buy at the market.”

“Oh, come on!” Lance exploded. “Keith wanted two-in-one! I’m not about to put myself through that.”

“It’s _efficient_ , Lance,” Keith said, turning to glare at him.

“It’s bad for your hair!”

“Oh great, look what you’ve done,” Hunk said to Pidge, who was already shaking her head and looking annoyed.

But, really, Lance didn’t think they actually argued that much. And it wasn’t like the stuff they _did_  argue about really mattered. They agreed far more often than they disagreed, anyway.

Like, they both agreed that Lance was better at being the big spoon. And they agreed that Keith’s hair looked adorable when he let Lance braid it (whether Keith admitted this out loud or not). And they agreed that neck kisses were very good and should happen virtually always, also by unspoken agreement (and proven by the amount of hickies they were having to hide, Jesus).

It was just stupid stuff like shampoo and directions that they couldn’t agree on. Speaking of, “I really think we should go my way,” Lance said, remembering the map all over again.

“Your way’s wrong!” Keith said.

Lance’s hands found a home on his hips as he leaned forward, saying, “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“You’re both wrong.” Lance blinked, turning to face Allura, who was standing a few feet in front of them looking unimpressed. She must’ve just gotten back from talking to the employees in the fuel station.

“Uh, are you sure, ‘Llura?” Lance said, spreading out the map on the table again as he looked up at her. “Because I was saying we should go this way.” He dragged his finger along the map again for emphasis, looking up at her desperately.

“Yeah, that’s wrong,” Allura said. “Both of you were trying to lead us in completely wrong directions.”

“What?!” said Lance.

Allura plopped her finger on the paper, directly on the spot that both Lance and Keith’s flight paths had been taking them too. “That’s not even the Earth’s galaxy,” Allura said. “ _This_  is the Milky Way,” she said, dragging her finger a good distance in the complete opposite direction. “Also, why the bizarre name?”

Lance shrugged. “Scientists have to make up for the boring material somehow.”

“Science isn’t boring, Lance,” Pidge said immediately.

“Arguable,” Lance said. “Also, does science even matter anymore when magic literally exists? “‘Cause I think me and all the lions would beg to differ.”

“That’s true,” Keith said from Lance’s side. “The magic of our lions and quintessence in general invalidates a lot of science. Knowing that, a lot of what we think is true is probably wrong.”

Lance turned to Keith with a dopey smile. “Aww,” he said. “We agree!”

“Well, we agree on most things,” Keith said, and Lance leaped forward, no longer caring about how atrocious the both of them apparently were at directions, and pressed a sloppy kiss to his cheek.

“I hate them both so much,” Pidge muttered from somewhere behind them. Lance flicked her off over his shoulder and called it a day.


	24. chapter twenty four: dealing with children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance goes home.

Keith could feel Lance’s — _everyone’s_  — anticipation. It was evident through the silence they all found themselves sitting in, a silence that was usually filled with conversation or dumb roadtrip games, usually ones that Lance had procured from the depths of his mind.

They were going to be there in minutes. Like, _actual minutes_. Even Keith was feeling a weird stirring in his gut, a longing to see Earth, to see humans and blue skies and breathe familiar air. It didn’t seem possible.

A familiar conversation played in Keith’s head, distant and echoey but still concrete. _You could come back with me. To my house. It’s not like, huge or anything, but we’re experts on fitting more people in there than we should be able to._

They’d talked about it more recently, too. Lance casually mentioning it like the fact Keith was going to go back to Lance’s house, would be meeting his family, wasn’t cause for heart palpitations.

It was.

Keith had never had to _impress_  anybody before. Growing up, all he’d had was his dad, and when he’d passed away, he’d been thrust into a home. He’d been young and sad and filled with spite and he hadn’t cared one bit whether anyone had liked him. Shiro had found him through that big brother program, somehow not getting fed up with Keith despite all the reasons Keith gave him to, and he’d managed to rope him in without having to impress him, either.

With Voltron, they’d all been thrust into space together, forced to work with one another in order to defend the universe, and there wasn’t really much _impressing_  that came with that. Just having to work together, having to get along, having to save the universe.

And somehow managing to make Lance like him.

Now, he was going to be meeting Lance’s family. The people Lance viewed in the highest light. The people that meant the entire world to him, meaning Keith should probably like, prove himself or something. He was _terrified_.

They all had their different plans for when they arrived on Earth. They’d be landing at the Garrison, the specifics of it having been already worked out through the lion’s comms (the fact that Sam Holt had already gotten back to Earth so long ago certainly helped their case), and then they’d be splitting off. Pidge to go see her mom, Hunk to see his family, and Allura, Romelle, and Coran to stick with the Garrison and oversee the Castle’s reconstruction.

Lance had invited Shiro and Krolia back to his house, but they’d declined, somehow knowing that Keith was going to need his space on this one. Plus, Krolia had mentioned seeing his father’s grave with a faraway look in her eye, and Shiro appeared antsy at the mere mention of them all splitting up, so Keith figured he would probably end up sticking with Allura, Romelle, and Coran just to keep the majority of them together.

That left Keith and Lance going to Lance’s home alone. For an as of yet unknown length of time. Allura and Coran were confident that the Castle of Lions 2.0 wouldn’t take too long to build, given the blueprints they’d left with Pidge’s dad, but Keith still wasn’t entirely sure what “not too long” meant. All he knew was that he was going to be sleeping with Lance in his childhood bed and then, once the Castle was rebuilt, they’d be back in space and fighting the remnants of the Galra empire harder than ever.

Until then, Earth.

The second they saw it, it was chaos. And a blur. Everyone was talking excitedly over each other on the comms, and once they were close enough, Garrison officials were directing them where to land, likely unnoticed by anyone at all, seeing as they were out in the middle of the desert.

What followed that was brief and rushed. The Garrison along with the government knew all about the war the paladins were fighting, though the everyday citizen didn’t have a clue. They were all thanked for their service, congratulated by a few officials, and then they were using their new and important status to secure one of the Garrison’s jets so that they could fly to Cuba from New Mexico.

“You still know how to fly this thing?” Keith asked as they climbed aboard. They’d been taught how to fly the jets along with the actual spacecrafts back when they’d been in the Garrison, but there was no doubt that they were both more attuned to more technologically advanced aircrafts now.

“Sure do,” Lance claimed. It was rough at the start, Lance forgetting a few basic procedures that their lions and space shuttles did automatically, but before long they were zipping through that clouds, Lance an anxious jittery mess and Keith in a surprisingly similar state.

The whole flight, Lance kept bursting out with, “We’re on _Earth_ ,” and “Holy shit, I’m going home,” and Keith found himself having as hard of a time believing it as Lance was. It certainly didn’t seem real, and even with seeing all the familiar sights — grass, clouds, oceans that were actually blue — Keith was having a hard time believing it.

It wasn’t long before Lance recognized where they were, pointing out his favorite beach before hastily directing them towards the coordinates of the landing sight they’d been given. There, they were offered a ride by another Garrison official, and Lance rattled off the address without a moment’s hesitation. The two of them sat in the back seat, their hands sweaty against each other’s as Lance squeezed Keith’s practically every few seconds, in between wide-eyed and excited glances.

When they pulled up in front of the house, Lance’s entire body went slack. His mouth was hanging open, his hand limp in Keith’s own, as his other hand hovered in the air, not quite touching the door handle. There was a bike laying down in the front yard and a basketball hoop on one side of the driveway. A tree towered in the front yard, the branches dangerously close to scraping along the side of the house. A tire swing hung from the tree, and the area directly below it was free of grass, as if feet skidded through the area too often for it to properly grow.

“Lance?” Keith said quietly, and Lance’s body seemed to reboot, his eyes blinking rapidly as his fingers fumbled with the handle. Keith mumbled a thank you to their driver before following after Lance, shutting the door behind him and barely hearing the car peel away.

“Hey, you good?” Keith tried again, because now Lance was just standing there, staring up at the house with something like anticipation and fear on his face.

“Yeah,” Lance said quietly. “Yeah. I’m — that’s my brother Marco’s bike,” he said suddenly, pointing to the bike a mere few feet in front of them.

“You wanna go see him?” Keith said softly, his hand coming up to just barely brush the small of Lance’s back.

“Yes,” Lance said, nodding now, and then he was walking up the front yard, his hand latching onto Keith’s and pulling him steadily along.

Lance didn’t knock, he just reached for the door handle and twisted. They stepped into the entryway, the walls lined with pictures — Lance and his siblings, his parents, his cousins. Lance in his Garrison uniform. Similar school photos of his sister and brothers — and shoes scattered messily around the front door. Lance closed it behind them, the door slamming pretty loudly in its frame, as he looked around in amazement. His hand was shaking in Keith’s.

“That you, Marcel? Can you grab the laundry when you come up?” someone shouted, and Lance’s eyes widened, his breath catching as his fingers tightened around Keith’s.

“My sister,” he whispered, and then, in a daze, wandered over to a closed door branching off from the entryway. He opened it, dislodging his hand from Keith’s in order to throw open the drier, piling the clean clothes into a basket by his feet before picking it up.

Keith let Lance lead the way, silently encouraging him as he paused in front of the stairs before starting up them, fingers white-knuckled around the rim of the laundry basket.

They emerged in the kitchen, finding two people sitting with their backs to them — a girl and a boy.

“I’m telling you,” the boy was saying, gesturing in a distinctly Lance-like fashion. “If she wanted to kiss me, she should’ve just _said_  something.”

“It doesn’t work like that!” the girl protested, before muttering, “Where’s Marce?” and turning in her seat as if to look for him. But then her eyes fell on Lance, standing there with a basket of laundry and the most dumbstruck look on his face, and she screamed.

The boy beside her screamed as well, more out of surprise than the knowledge that Lance alive and in their home, and then who Keith assumed was Lance’s sister Veronica was racing forward, ripping the laundry basket out of Lance’s hands in order to tug him into a hug. Immediately, she started talking in rapid-fire Spanish, sobbing into Lance’s chest as he laughed wetly, reassuring her in the same language.

Lance’s brother was out of his chair too, yelling, “MAMI!” at the top of his lungs before crashing into Lance, crushing him and his sister but obviously not caring.

Another boy around the same age wandered into the room, looking confused over all the commotion, before he gasped and said, “ _Lance_?” and was yanking his siblings out of their hug and invading Lance’s arms instead, though only for a moment before he was forcing Lance down with the strength of his noogie.

Lance switched back to English, then. “ _Stop_!” he protested. “Stop it, Luis, _stop_!”

“Disappearing on us!” Luis said, stopping only to pull Lance back up, shaking him. “No phone call, no letter!”

“I was in space, idiot!”

“Mami’s gonna kill you,” Veronica said, shoving Luis out of the way and grabbing Lance’s chin, tilting his head this way and that. “She’s gonna be so mad you let yourself get hurt.”

Lance laughed. “These are just the ones I had to heal on my own,” he said, pulling his collar down to expose the very top of the scar that continued down his chest. “I’ve had worse.”

None of his siblings looked too happy about that, their expressions faltering for a moment, before the last brother — who Keith now figured was Marco — punched Lance hard in the shoulder. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh!” Lance said, his face transforming into a bright grin as he spun around and hauled Keith forward, wrapping an arm tightly around his waist and saying proudly, “This is Keith. My boyfriend.”

Keith smiled tentatively, expecting a slew of, “Oh, how nice to meet you!”s and maybe a few, “Thanks for defending the universe!”s. Instead, he got a chorus of, “ _Keith_?”

And then, from Veronica, “ _The_  Keith?”

Keith turned to look at Lance curiously only to find him bright red. “Shut up!” he said, glaring at them all viciously, before he turned to Keith with a smile. “Babe, this is Veronica, Marco, and Luis. I’ve told you a lot about them...”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Keith said, pulling out his mental and dusty book of _‘How to Seem Like the Polite Young Man You’ve Never Really Been’_.

“Likewise!” Veronica said, before pulling Keith out of Lance’s arms and into her own hug instead. Marco and Luis both shook his hand, Luis adding a slap on his back to the occasion.

“Where’s Mami?” Lance said while all this was happening.

“I don’t know,” Marco said, before shouting, “MAMI!” again.

“So, you don’t speak any Spanish, Keith?” Luis said, eying Keith critically.

“Um... no,” Keith said a bit anxiously. Should he have asked Lance to teach him before coming? Was it even possible to learn a language that fast? “I mean, I know like… Dónde está la biblioteca?”

Beside him, Lance burst into laughter, his head thrown back. But then he pulled Keith back into his side and crooned something to him low in Spanish that Keith couldn’t understand one bit of. He got the jist, however, when Veronica screeched, “ _Lance_!” and smacked him upside the head.

“Ouch, Ronnie! I was just joking!”

Keith still didn’t know what Lance had said, but he flushed red anyway.

“What’s all the yelling about?” someone said suddenly, and everyone spun to face the doorway to the living room. And then there was a second screech and more rapid-fire Spanish and crying and laughing.

Lance’s siblings were right about his mom being upset about his scar. She brushed her fingers gently over it, her eyes sad and hurting for her son, before she hugged him tighter and harder than ever. And then, again, Keith was noticed, and again, he was introduced. Lance’s mom hugged him almost as hard as she’d hugged Lance, her eyes bright with excitement as she spoke to him. Except sometimes she slipped back into Spanish, eyeing Lance over Keith’s shoulder and making Lance respond in a tone that was sharp and embarrassed.

The reunion continued for hours. Lance had been right about his family smushing as many people into his house as they could, which meant more people kept being called home with the news that Lance was back. Aunts and uncles crammed into the house, hugging Lance and eyeing Keith and laughing at every story Lance told.

At one point, Keith having drifted into the kitchen to grab a plate of food (he wasn’t even sure when it’d appeared, nor who’d cooked it), Lance came and found him, latching on his hand in order to drag him into the living room. “You’re okay, right?” he said, pausing just before pulling Keith out of the kitchen entirely. “I know they can be a kind of overwhelming…”

“I’m fine, Lance,” Keith promised, meaning it. “I like your family. They’re nice.”

Lance broke out his 100-watt smile for that one and dragged Keith right into the middle of the living room. More family had arrived, presumably having already hugged Lance, seeing as they were all sitting in the living room and looking expectantly at Keith. He imagined Lance had probably said, “Wait, let me introduce you to my boyfriend!” only moments before.

“All right,” Lance said, his arm winding around Keith’s waist (that seemed to be its home, tonight) as he extended a finger, pointing to the first person on the couch and sliding down with each name. “You’ve already met my abuela, and these are my cousins — or like, first cousins once removed or something, I don’t know. Everyone’s just a cousin here. Anyway, this is Rosie, Roxie, and Rosanna — triplets.” His finger moved. “Simon and Maxwell, neighbors but still family—”

“Hi Keith,” the neighbors but still family chorused.

“Over here we have Niguel and Raphael, and this is Lucinda, and that’s Serena, and here’s Marcell, Veronica’s fiancé—”

“Husband,” Veronica corrected, and Lance flushed.

“Right! Husband now. Can’t believe I wasn’t invited to the wedding, by the way.” The room burst into laughter, and Lance grinned, his finger finally coming to a stop on Veronica. “And you know Veronica, and on her lap—” Lance continued confidently, his finger sliding down to point at baby perched on her knee, but he finally came to a stop. His eyebrows furrowed, his mouth turning into a frown, and he trailed off with an, “Uhh…”

Finally, Lance swallowed, shaking his head as his cheeks tinged pink. Sounded upset and embarrassed, he said lowly, “I’m sorry, um. I can’t remember the baby’s name…" 

Veronica grinned. “That’s because you don’t know it yet,” she said, and Lance’s confused expression took a few seconds to clear up before it did all at once, his posture straightening and his expression turning flabbergasted as he struggled to say something.

He settled on, “ _What_?!” and then, “You mean—? Yours?!”

“Yes,” Veronica laughed, bouncing the baby lightly.

“What’s his — her? — name?” Lance said, stepping away from Keith and closer to the baby.

“Lance,” Veronica said.

It took Lance a moment.

And then, “ _Lance_?” he exclaimed. His hands were shaking again, Keith could see them. “I— You— you named him after me?!”

“Yes,” Veronica laughed. “Would you like to hold him?”

Lance spent the rest of the night with Little Lance, holding him close and cradling him and murmuring in his tiny ears. He claimed he had to teach him how to be cool enough to live up to the name, but Keith saw him tearing up and smiling happily when he thought no one was watching.

Keith didn’t think he’d ever been surrounded by so much love. The entire atmosphere felt thick with it, people openly crying happily at Lance’s return, near-strangers pulling Keith into hugs and telling him how glad they were Lance had him, how good the two of them were for each other, how grateful they were of Keith taking care of him.

It was overwhelming, but in the best of ways. Some moments, Keith clung to the walls, watching Lance interact with all the people he’d missed so dearly, and other times he stayed wrapped up by Lance’s side, holding him up as he shook, so clearly overwhelmed in a way similar but not quite the same as Keith. He was going to be exhausted tonight, Keith could tell. He’d probably crash the second he was horizontal.

And still, Keith couldn’t figure out who he liked watching Lance interact with more. There were his siblings, who he was obviously so comfortable around and clicked right back into place with, despite the amount of time they’d spent separated. And there was his mom, who spoke to Lance softly and lovingly one moment before berating him the next, demanding to know just what he was thinking, putting his shoes up on the coffee table. Not to mention the way he was with his aunts and uncles and cousins and neighbors, somehow so close and familiar with such a large amount of people unthinkingly. Keith was pretty sure it was a super power.

But honestly, it might’ve been the kids. Lance just had a way of talking to them, a way that made Keith’s heart go stupidly soft and mushy in his chest.

“What, you want to know how I got _this_?” he demanded, pointing dramatically at his scar. The triplets were surrounding him, one of whom — Rosanna? — having only just asked him about it.

“Yes!” three six-year-old voices chorused, and then Lance was dropping to his knees, his eyes alight with the excitement of a story-teller.

“Then I guess I’ll tell you,” he said dramatically. “But you have to promise me you won’t have nightmares tonight.”

“We promise!”

“All right, then. It all starts with a space pirate. He had _only one eye_ , and he was looking for a replacement…”

Lance waxed on dramatically about made up adventures and heroisms, except Keith was pretty sure he didn’t realize that the things he’d actually done in space were just as heroic.

Eventually, Keith found himself exploring the house alone. There were people practically everywhere, lingering in hallways and rooms and even on the staircases, holding plates of food and chatting amicably and saying hi to Keith like they’d known him for years whenever he passed. The only place that wasn’t occupied, Keith quickly learned, were the bedrooms.

It didn’t take much work to find Lance’s.

The room looked like it hadn’t been touched since the day Lance left for the Garrison. There were posters all over the walls, of space and bands and movies, and the bed was nicely made, every surface in the room covered with cute little knick-knacks. There were glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, though only right above the desk. It looked like Lance had had to stand on it to get them up there.

Keith smiled as he wandered around the room, seeing little bits and pieces of Lance scattered around. A geode on his desk. Pictures taped to his walls.

On his bed sat something that clearly didn’t belong — altean tech. It was one of the devices the rest of the team had been offered to put a recording on, back when Sam Holt had been leaving for Earth. Keith hadn’t recording anything, for obvious reasons.

But here was Lance’s recording.

Keith didn’t really know what he was thinking. And maybe he _wasn’t_ , which was part of the problem, but one moment he was just standing there in the middle of the room and the next he was sitting cross legged on the bed, the device in his hand and the audio starting automatically.

At first, it was just the quiet whir of a recording without words to accompany it, but then Lance started speaking. " _Hey_ ,” his voice said, soft and sounding unsure. " _It’s Lance. If you’re hearing this, Pidge’s dad got back to Earth safely. He’s gonna explain everything to you guys better than I can, but I’m okay. I’m alive. I’m, uh…”_  A laugh. “ _Well, I’m in space. It’s a long story, but I’m galaxies away. I’m defending the universe, believe it or not._

“ _Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna be all right. I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back, but… It’ll be okay. We’ll keep you safe. We’ll keep the universe safe. I love you._ ” There was one single sniffle that followed before the recording cut off. Keith set down the device before it could start again.

“Found my room, huh?”

Keith jolted, swinging his feet off the bed and standing up straight as he stared at Lance in the doorway. Keith hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights when he’d come in, and seeing as it was already dark outside, he could barely see Lance, only illuminated from the light in the hall.

“I’m sorry,” Keith said immediately. “I just wanted to sit down for a minute—” he began hastily, but Lance stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, flicking on the lights.

“It’s okay,” he interrupted. “I don’t mind.”

Keith deflated as his sudden burst of anxiety started to drain out of them. “Everyone’s starting to head home for the night,” Lance explained, stepping closer to Keith. He grabbed both his hands, letting their foreheads lean together. Quieter, he said, “So you heard my recording?”

“Sorry,” Keith said again. Honestly, it was a lot less personal than he’d expected. He would’ve thought to have heard Lance rambling almost nonsensically, trying to explain everything at once, trying to catch his family up on everything they were missing. Instead, he’d been short and to the point. Sometimes Keith forgot that while Lance was still the same person at his core, he’d changed a lot in the time they’d been separated as well. Could be starkly serious. Frightening, when he wanted to be, when he was facing enemies and defending his friends.

Keith wondered if Lance had even fully expected his message to make it back here.

“It’s okay,” Lance said again, and he tilted his head up to press a chaste peck against Keith’s lips. “How about we change and get ready for bed?”

It was exciting seeing Lance’s closet, filled with all the clothes he hadn’t happened to be wearing when they’d departed Earth in the blue lion. Lance pulled a pair of boxers out of little drawer, holding them up and shaking them in front of Keith enticingly. They were plaid. And pink.

“Wanna wear these?” he sang, holding them out in front of Keith’s crotch expectantly, and Keith glared at him.

“No,” he said.

“Guess I’ll wear ‘em, then,” Lance said dramatically, throwing them over his shoulder. “You can have these ones.” He tossed Keith a red pair — probably on purpose — and then rummaged through his closet some more, offering Keith a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt. He decided to go just for the pants, figuring he could sleep shirtless for once. At least here he didn’t have to be on guard for some emergency awakening where he had run out of his sleeping quarters in whatever it was he was wearing.

Lance went completely without except for the boxers, the two of them crossing the hall together to brush their teeth in the bathroom. “We always have a million extras,” Lance had explained, pulling out two new toothbrushes from the cabinet below the sink.

The door burst open as Lance was washing his face, Keith having just spit in the sink beside him and plopped his toothbrush in the cup Lance had put his in.

“Ohhh my God,” Marco said, stepping around Lance none-too-carefully and kicking him in the ankle as he did. “Does this mean now that you’re back you’re gonna be hogging the bathroom again?”

Lance stood up, eyes closed and face dripping water, and Keith held out a towel for him, which Lance took gratefully. “If you’re asking if I’m about to start taking long-ass showers again, the answer is _yes_ ,” Lance said, before balling the towel up and pelting it at Marco, who dodged it expertly.

Marco grumbled something about them being _twice_  as long, now, implying that he and Lance were going to end up sharing the shower, and Lance blushed as he reached for a second towel, yelling at Marco in Spanish as he threw that one too.

Despite the complaints, Marco was obviously happy to have Lance back, and both of the brothers grinning broadly as they roughhoused. The second Lance stepped out of the bathroom, he was pulled into Luis’s arms and off his feet, Luis leaning back so that Lance’s legs kicked in the air as he complained loudly.

“It’s good to have him back,” Veronica sighed happily from beside Keith. She was holding her own toothbrush, her arms crossed as she grinned at her screaming brothers. “And it’s good to meet you too, Keith. We’ve heard a lot about you.”

“You have?” Keith said, because he still couldn’t quite figure out _how_. It wasn’t like Lance had been sending secret messages home all this time.

“Yep,” Veronica said without explaining further, and then she slipped into the bathroom.

“Hey, wait!” Luis yelled. “I’m next, Ronnie, you know that!”

“You snooze you lose,” Veronica replied, before slamming the door in his face. Luis lunged for the door handle, it having yet to lock, but Lance grabbed his wrist and yanked him backward just soon enough for the lock to click in place.

“You snooze you lose, dude,” Lance repeated, and he laughed as he sprinted into his room, dragging Keith with him as Luis growled fake angrily from behind them.

Lance locked the door after closing it, and then he pulled Keith across the room, climbing into his bed and holding up his blankets expectantly. Keith slid in next to him, immediately pressing into his side as Lance leaned over to the bedside table and turned off the light.

Their breaths mingled as they slowed, their bodies loose and light and touching in all the right places, warm and soft.

“G’night, Lance,” Keith managed, letting out a breath as one of Lance’s hands slid down his side, settling right above his hip.

“Night,” Lance returned, his voice already thick and drowsy with sleep. “Love you.”

Seconds away from drifting off to sleep, Keith’s eyes shot open, realization and adrenaline pounding through him, but Lance was already snoring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> family reunion scenes are HARD. hope it lived up to your expectations!! :D


	25. day twenty five: trying to seduce one another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was inspired by me rockin out to summer nights on a car ride and Promptly imagining lance singing it to keith (do yourself a favor and listen to the song before/after you read maybe)
> 
> anyway, there's smut at the end of the chapter, but up until that is your regular fluff. if it's not your thing, feel free to skip it!

“You want to take this up to Keith, _Mijo_?”

Lance glanced up from his messaging device. It was just like their space tablets, but smaller, though just as advanced. Hunk and Pidge had been sending messages through their paladin chat that morning.

_Hunk: loollll sorry universe i’m staying here with my moms forever_

_Pidge: oh damn true_

_Pidge: srry matt you can stay out there with the coalition uwu_

_Lance: not me_

_Lance: luis keeps bringing up memes i don’t know_

_Lance: i need to go back to where our space memes are the only memes i need to care about_

“I don’t think he’s awake, Mami,” Lance said absently, shoveling another bite of eggs into his mouth. “He would’ve texted me.”

Marco, for possibly the hundredth time, tried to snatch the device out of Lance’s hand. He smacked him.

“Come on!” Marco whined. “I just want to see the cool alien tech!”

“This one’s not even cool!” Lance protested. “We literally have flying lions.”

“Okay but _they’re_  not in Cuba. Thanks to you.”

“We had to take the jet!”

“ _Leandro_.”

Lance looked up, eyes wide, to find his mother glaring at him, a spatula pointed his way. “Keith is our _guest_. Go see if he’s awake.”

Lance grumbled about practically being a guest at this point, too, but he grabbed the plate of eggs, shoved his pseudo-phone into his pocket with a glare at Marco, and took the stairs two at a time. When he’d woken up, he and Keith had still been all wrapped up in each other’s arms, Keith’s hands pressed against Lance’s bare skin and splayed over his stomach. It’d been a struggle getting out of bed without waking him up (and kissing him silly), but Lance had somehow managed, needing to satisfy his already growling stomach.

It’d made him feel warm and nostalgic despite actually _being_  here when he’d seen that, just like always, it was only him, Marco, and his mom awake this early in the morning. They were always the first ones up, usually followed by Veronica, sporting atrocious bed-head and grumbling her responses, if any, and Luis, who would probably still be half-asleep whenever he got to the kitchen.

Lance pushed open his bedroom door quietly, plate still held aloft, and swung the door wider in surprise when he saw that Keith was actually awake. He was sitting up on the bed, Lance’s bedside drawer open and a number of small objects littered around him.

“Keith, you’re awake,” Lance said, now glad his mom had actually made him check on his boyfriend. Keith had always been pretty bad about checking his transponder, anyway.

He looked up, now, flushing the second he laid eyes on Lance. Probably because he’d been caught snooping. Again.

“Hey,” he said, his eyes darting from Lance to the stuff in front of him and back again. “Love poems, huh?” he said, holding up a wrinkled piece of paper. Lance shrieked.

“That was Middle School Lance!” he exclaimed, sprinting forward (the breakfast somehow not getting spilled) and trying to snatch the paper from Keith’s hand. Keith held him away with an arm, the other way out of Lance’s reach as he began to read aloud.

_“Hair so dark, skin so light—”_

“No!” Lance screeched. He set the plate down on his bedside table before trying to pounce on Keith, who kept him away by planting both his socked feet on Lance’s chest, holding the paper above his face as he continued to read.

_“When he blushes, he blushes bright.”_

“I’ll kill you!” Lance yelled, but he was laughing too. He grabbed Keith’s ankles and _pulled_ , making Keith scream before he flipped himself over, clinging to the side of the bed with one hand, still holding the paper in the other.

_“I want to know him, he’s so cool—”_

Lance dived on Keith, making the breath rush out of him with a laugh as Lance scooted up his back, yanking the paper out of his hand victoriously. But Keith had already read the next lines. He relayed them dramatically: “ _Sigh, if only he wasn’t a tool_.”

“I hate you,” Lance groaned, throwing the paper behind him and off the bed.

“My boyfriend’s a poet!” Keith answered, and Lance sat up on his butt, grabbing his arms and wrestling them behind him.

“Never speak of this again!” he demanded. “Give in!”

Keith was laughing, struggling against the hold Lance had him in. He turned his head to the side, looking up at Lance out of the corner of his eye. “But I want to know who it’s about!”

Lance shook his head, feeling his face grow warm. What he’d said was… kind of a lie. It hadn’t necessarily been Middle School Lance… it’d just been middle school _aged_  Lance.

The Garrison took recruits from the eighth grade, after all, so a thirteen-year-old Lance had written that poem after developing a pretty heft crush on…

“Tell me!” Keith whined.

This idiot.

Yes, it was true. Lance had been harboring feelings for the mullet-man himself for _years_. He’d kind of forgotten about that part, having spent so long in space and away from his family. It’d all come rushing back to him when he’d stepped into his house, though, remembering how he’d used to talk and talk and _talk_  about that stupid Keith guy who was so cute it wasn’t fair.

“Never,” Lance said now, and then Keith got that glint in his eye that he got whenever he and Lance raced or spared or competed, and then—

Lance grunted, having been somehow flipped onto his back, which didn’t even make sense to him. Except now Keith was the one pinning _him_  down, hands held against the mattress above his head and hips pressed Lance’s against the bed.

“Tell me,” Keith said. Lance raised an eyebrow, and instead of answering, he grinded his hips up into Keith’s suggestively. Just like that, Keith’s face was going pink (God, he _did_  blush bright. Thirteen-year-old Lance was a genius) and he was sliding off of Lance and onto the floor, clearing his throat hastily.

“I am pretty hungry though, so I guess it’ll have to wait,” he said quickly, grabbing the plate Lance had brought him and plopping back down at the head of the bed. Lance was propped up on his elbows, looking at Keith and trying not to visibly pout. Keith shoving so much food into his mouth he could barely swallow it effectively ruined the mood, though.

After that, Lance kept trying to, you know. _Initiate_  things with Keith. They’d gotten pretty close to doing it before, but Lance had never let it get too far along. He’d wanted his first time with Keith to be special, after all.

And here was _perfect_. He was back home, back on Earth, and they had plenty of free time as the castle was getting rebuilt. They’d never had a better opportunity than now. And Keith, for whatever reason, was being _stingy_.

Lance was using, like, everything in his arsenal to try to seduce the idiot! He would come out of the shower dripping wet, only bothering to wrap a towel (loosely!) around his waist before walking into his room, where Keith would be sitting on the bed. He’d go immediately red-faced, his eyes traveling all over Lance’s body, but even then he wouldn’t do anything about it. And then Lance would be forced to go into the closet and actually dry off and get dressed.

And _everything_  was going like that. It was like Keith had found some hidden reserve of restraint and was dipping into it constantly, meanwhile Lance felt more horny than ever before. It’d gotten to the point where he’d started saying things to Keith flippantly in Spanish, if only in an attempt to vent to him. Like, “ _We should have sex. Right here. In my childhood bed_ ,” or, “ _What are we waiting for?! Let’s get naked_!”

“Are you saying dirty things to me again?” Keith said suspiciously, glaring at Lance. He was probably still curious as to what Lance had said to him that first night, though Lance had no intentions of repeating it — not after that whooping to the head he’d gotten from Ronnie.

“Nooo,” Lance sang unconvincingly, and Keith blushed.

“Are you ever gonna tell me what you’re saying?”

Lance hummed, rolling on top of Keith and saying, “Maybe if you ask politely,” as he ran a finger down his chest.

Instead of asking politely, Keith said, in a rush, “I think we should go to bed!” and rolled over, flopping Lance off of him.

All in all, seducing his boyfriend was, somehow, a bust. So Lance gave up, because that was the easy thing to do. Instead of trying to sex his boyfriend, he decided to take him out on the date.

“Mami, can we borrow the truck?” Lance shouted as he descended the stairs, Keith hot on his heels.

“Do you remember how to drive something with wheels?” his mom answered, poking her head out of the kitchen.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Lance said, and then, “ _Yes_ ,” when she continued to look at him suspiciously. Finally, his mom tossed him the keys hanging up in the kitchen, and Lance caught them, leading Keith back outside. The truck was an old beat up Silverado, something that honestly belonged in the dump but had somehow managed to gain his family’s unconditional love. Instead of getting rid of it and buying something better, they just kept fixing it up whenever it broke. Lance was somehow both entirely and not surprised that it was still running.

He opened the passenger side door for Keith, who snorted but accepted Lance’s kiss on the cheek, and then continued around to his side. The car was already blasting hot air when Lance turned it on, their AC perpetually broken but everyone in his family still desperate enough to turn it on and see if it would work. Lance shut it off and cranked down the windows instead, grinning as he backed out of the driveway and started down the familiar streets.

“There’s my old favorite ice cream shop,” Lance pointed out as he drove. He was steering with his left hand, holding Keith’s with his right, which meant everything he pointed out either got a nod of his head or Lance and Keith’s conjoined hands motioning in the direction of it. “And here’s where I used to have soccer practice. And — oh, look! That’s my old elementary school! Do you see that jungle gym? I bit through my lip falling off those monkey bars.”

When Lance had first started driving, he hadn’t really had a destination in mind, but one quickly became apparent to him. His heart felt full and his brain mushy every time he looked at Keith, who was sporting this soft smile that made Lance want to kiss him just as softly. Made him want to tell him he loved him.

It wasn’t too hot out, thankfully, the sun already sinking through the sky, and Lance knew just the place where he could park the truck and watch the sunset with Keith. He disentangled his hand from Keith’s and jammed a finger into the radio once they got out onto the real roads, a bit of a drive before them in order to actually get to the lookout point Lance had in mind. He didn’t recognize any of the songs playing, considering his years-long absence, and he starting fiddling with the dial, desperately looking for anything he recognized.

And then, a miracle happened.

His fingers flew from the tuner dial to the volume one, cranking it all the way up as familiar chords played through the truck, the radio thankfully the one thing that worked properly in here.

Lance laughed, sharing a glance with Keith who looked similarly excited, obviously recognizing the song as well. It’d been so long since they’d had Earth music. Lance was surprised he hadn’t thought of it until now, but then again, he’d gotten used to being without it.

The music built, and at once, he and Keith burst into song, grinning as they sang, “ _Summer niiiights, everybody are you with me? Let that igloo cooler mark your piece of paradise_!”

Lance danced as he sang, paying only half a mind to the now dirt roads as swayed in his seat, tapping his free foot and pounding his right hand against the console. He grabbed Keith’s wrist at one point, singing into his hand like it was a microphone, and Keith laughed.

The song was over too soon, the both of them breathless and pink with exhilaration. Lance turned the radio off the second another song started, unfamiliar to them, not wanting to ruin the fun mood they’d just put themselves in.

And it was fine being without music, seeing as they were already there. Lance pulled out onto the bumpy outlook, thankfully free of any other cars, and eased the truck backwards towards the sunset so they could lay in the flatbed as they watched it. He grabbed blankets from the backseat and piled them out there, making it all comfy before kicking off his shoes and climbing in, Keith right behind him.

They cuddled up with Lance’s arm around Keith’s shoulders, the sun already low in the sky and the colors bleeding all over the horizon.

Lance started singing without really noticing.

It started as a hum, just a few chords of the beginning of the song, but then his foot was tapping, and Keith’s head was nodding along. Unfortunately, that was all the encouragement he needed.

“ _Flip flop tans and some white sand, I know the perfect spot_ ,” Lance sang, sliding away from Keith and getting up on his knees in front of him. Keith just raised his eyebrows, trying and failing to look unamused.

Lance’s confidence only grew, knowing he had Keith’s attention and building on it like he always did. “ _Well the sunset better set soon so we can get in the mood_ ,” he sang, swinging his hips and lowering his voice as he scooted forward on his knees, straddling one of Keith’s legs. His hands slid suggestively down Keith’s chest at ‘mood’, slowing to a stop at his lower stomach. “ _Things start getting heated up when it starts getting cool, yeah!_

“ _Summer niiights! Everybody are you_ — Mmh!” he was cut off as Keith pulled him into a kiss, a hand behind his neck and another fisted in his shirt. Lance gasped into it, letting Keith push him back, and down, until the two of them were laying in the bed of the truck and kissing like their lives depended on it.

Fucking Keith. Lance tries to seduce him for _days_  and it’s a little singing that finally does the trick. Why did that seem like such a _Keith_  kind of thing to happen?

Whatever. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Lance was shoving Keith onto his back, now, straddling him as he kissed him, as his fingers skimmed up his sides, pushing his shirt up his chest.

Keith panted against him, his hips arching up into Lance’s, the both of them letting out twin groans at the pressure. Lance sat up and tore his shirt off in the next minute, and Keith was quick to let his fingers dance over Lance’s exposed skin. That was, until he was suddenly pushing Lance away, his face flushed and his eyes lidded regretfully.

“Um,” he said, Lance’s hands still holding onto his just unbuttoned fly. “We— we shouldn’t.” He cleared his throat. “You wanted it to be special, remember?”

Lance gaped at Keith. “Uh, this _is_  special,” he said, gesturing all around them, at the trees and evening air and _still setting sun_. “Being here on Earth, _with you,_  is special, doofus.”

Keith’s eyes widened, hopefully in realization of the fact that they could’ve been having sex for at _least_  a couple days now, and then he was pulling Lance back down onto him, groaning, “I’m an idiot,” into Lance’s mouth.

“A little,” Lance panted in response, now working twice as fast to get Keith’s pants off, knowing they really weren’t going to stop this time.

Everything was fast and hot, quiet sighs and tentative hands and shaky breaths. It was warm out but Lance still shivered when he found himself only in a pair of boxers, Keith’s fingers tangled in his hair as Lance kissed down his neck, his chest, his stomach…

“Lance,” Keith gasped, when Lance’s tongue flicked out against his hip bone.

“Is this okay?” Lance asked, his hands sliding up Keith’s thighs. Keith nodded, propping himself up on his elbows, looking down at Lance.

“Yeah,” he said, chest and face flushed. Lance maintained eye contact for a moment longer before he tucked his fingers under the waistband of Keith’s boxers and pulled. Keith lifted up, letting them slide out from underneath him, and his cock sprang up in their absence, close to Lance’s face.

Lance had never been this close to a real, live penis before, but he tried not to let his unease and inexperience show. It was flushed red and had curling black hair at the base, and Lance figured this was the time he should probably stick it in his mouth.

He paused, realizing he wasn’t entirely sure _how_  to do that, before figuring probably anything he tried would feel good. And so it was with faked confidence that he grabbed the base, eyes flicking up to Keith’s when he sucked in a breath and lowered his head.

He just used his tongue at first, sticking it out and lathing over the tip. Keith made a sound like, “ _oh_!” and his hand tightened in Lance’s hair, so he figured he was doing well enough. He continued to lap at the head, swirling his tongue around the tip, before he decided to get over his fear and just popped the head into his mouth.

Keith was definitely breathing faster, his fingers occasionally twitching against Lance’s head as he sank down on Keith, trying to cover him in spit so he could move easier. He ended up pulling up a little before sinking down again, taking him even deeper in his mouth, and he felt Keith’s hips jerk under him as he just barely managed to restrain himself.

And then Lance remembered something he’d read once. It’d been late at night and he’d been on his laptop and just happened to come across the information, but… he believed it.

He pulled up to the top, lips wrapped around the head, and started humming. Keith jerked underneath him, saying, “Lance!” before letting go of his head, suddenly needing both elbows to hold him up properly, the one having been starting to shake. He was looking at Lance with wide-eyes, his hips giving miniscule jerks into Lance’s mouth as he continued to hum, sinking down before pulling back up, focusing on the sensitive head.

Keith’s expression morphed into one of incredulousness. “Lance — fuck — are you seriously humming Summer Nights?”

Lance had to pull off to laugh, grinning up at Keith who’s hips bucked up into nothing, before he shot him an obnoxious wink and went down on him again. His jaw was definitely starting to hurt, but it was worth it for the quiet sounds and movements Keith kept making, worth it for the way he finally stopped propping himself up, head knocking against the bed of the truck as he laid flat on his back, arching his hips up into Lance’s mouth.

Lance didn’t mind, deciding he liked how eager Keith was, and he tucked his hands under Keith’s butt to help hold him up. Keith was splayed out all akimbo, an arm thrown over his eyes and a hand clenching into the blankets, his legs spread out on other side of Lance’s head as he laid in between them. It was beautiful, watching him pant and squirm and murmur Lance’s name, saying, “Lance, Lance, I think I’m gonna—”

His eyes widened, realizing exactly what Keith thought he was gonna do, and he made a split second decision. He didn’t exactly want to have to explain to his mom why he was washing the truck’s blankets, so he sank down on Keith instead, deciding to not make a mess. Keith moaned, his thighs clenching around Lance’s head, a heel digging into his back — when had it gotten back there? — and then he was shaking, gasping, filling Lance’s mouth with a salty warmth. He swallowed before he could properly taste it, which was probably a good idea, and he lingered on Keith afterwards, sucking him through the aftershocks before slowly pulling up off of him, finishing with a vulgar _pop_.

Panting and feeling particularly proud of himself, Lance said, “Good?”

Keith looked up at him with bleary eyes, his chest still heaving and covered in a sheen of sweat. “Fuck,” he said instead. And then, “Come here.”

Lance did exactly that, crawling along Keith’s side and plopping down directly beside him. Keith’s smile was easy and blissed out, but it slowly grew in sharpness as he came back down from his high, rolling onto his side and pushing Lance flat on his back as he laid beside him.

He grabbed Lance’s face and tilted it towards him, pressing their lips together and kissing him slowly as his hand slid down from his cheek. It played across his skin, danced across his chest and slid down his ribs, before moving back up again. His fingers were light and teasing, touching everywhere except where Lance wanted them, even going so far as to push Lance’s boxers down, though only to touch his hips, his thighs.

Goosebumps rose all along Lance’s skin, cropping up everywhere Keith touched, everywhere he teased. He knew exactly what he was doing, smiling into their lazy kisses as Lance huffed whenever he got especially close only to drift away again.

“Keith,” Lance said, long after he’d had enough.

“What?” Keith said innocently, and Lance had had no idea he could _be_  like this. So teasing and frustrating and _infuriating_. Or, wait… maybe he had.

“Touch me,” Lance demanded, his head arching back automatically as Keith’s lips slid down his jaw, his neck. Fuck, he was good at that.

“I am,” Keith said simply, a finger coming up to circle his nipple, then pinch it. And _that_  felt way too good, so Lance reached up and grabbed his wrist, directing it down, down, down…

Lance gasped as Keith actually allowed his hand to be directed, his fingers curling around exactly where Lance wanted it. “Keith,” Lance said again, mainly because it was all he could think to say as Keith’s hand moved torturously slowly over his arousal, as his tongue flicked out against his collarbone after being scraped by his teeth.

It was obvious Keith was was reveling in how he was making Lance feel. He was slowly falling apart under his touch, driven crazy by the fact that it wasn’t _quite_  enough. His hips jerked only to have Keith’s hand move away, his fingers clenching in Keith’s side only to have him stroke Lance even slower.

“Keith,” Lance whined, because he was past finding whining embarrassing, now. Keith was totally going to pay for this later, when Lance was once again sane of mind, but right then all he really cared about was Keith holding him a little tighter and jerking him to sweet, sweet completion. “ _C’mon_ , I was nice to you.”

“You don’t think this is nice?” Keith said, and his thumb swirled around the slit, making Lance keen and jolt in place.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he hissed. “Just— just— ah!” Keith had for some reason decided to take pity on him, his grip tightening and speeding up until Lance was curling into his touch, pulling Keith away from his neck because it was too much. Instead, he pressed his face into Keith’s chest, panted against his skin and clenched his hip _hard_  as Keith’s hand sped up over him even more, going faster and faster until it was all Lance could do to just hold on and let go.

He came with a quiet moan, the noise pressed into Keith’s skin, and his hips jerked away from Keith when he grew too sensitive, his breaths still loud in his ears.

It took another minute for him to calm down completely, his body flushed and warm and satisfied, and then he was peeling his eyes open, looking up at Keith.

“Good?” Keith said, imitating Lance.

“As fuck,” Lance said, before getting to his feet shakily and hopping out of the truck, hissing as he stepped on a few rocks. He threw open the door and rummaged around the center console for some napkins only to come back and throw them at Keith, who immediately started mopping up the mess Lance had left on his hand and stomach.

Lance then climbed back into the cozy bed of the truck, pressing up against Keith and sighing as Keith wrapped an arm around him.

“That was fun,” Lance said, smiling up at Keith who smiled back, his hand finding its way back into Lance’s hair.

“Really fun,” Keith agreed.

“We should take a shower together later,” Lance suggested immediately, and Keith snorted, though even his laughter couldn’t hide the way his eyes had lit up at the idea.

Lance just grinned at him as he threw a leg over Keith’s, pulling him closer and tugging a random blanket over their bodies, except the whole time he was thinking, _I love you, I love you, I love you_ , and wondering just when he would work up the courage to tell him.


	26. day twenty six: interacting with family members

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things must come to an end.

“Lance! Could you _please_  hurry up in there?!”

Keith panicked, looking between the door and Lance, who apparently had no plan on answering anytime soon. For the first time ever, he grabbed Lance’s hair and pulled him _off_  his dick, and Lance glared up at him before clearing his throat.

“No!” he called back.

“I’m serious, I need to brush my teeth! You’re taking so long!” Marco yelled back, banging on the door now.

“It’s Keith’s fault, not mine!” Lance yelled back, making Keith’s eyes bulge out of his head. There was no way in hell this was Keith’s fault! Lance was the one that’d wanted to cuddle standing under the water for almost twenty minutes! “Go away!”

“I hate y— _oh_!” Keith said, as Lance popped him back into his mouth, and _wow_ , he was way too fucking good at this. Keith’s hand stayed in Lance’s hair, twisting as he curled over him, panting quietly.

Ever since that night in the truck, they’d gotten a little… busy. Like, they had to do everything and do everything _now_ kind of busy. They could hardly go to bed without at least fooling around first, these days. It was seriously becoming a problem.

A _good_  problem.

Keith had touched Lance in practically every way imaginable. They’d tangled naked under Lance’s bedsheets and gotten lines on their skin from the hammock out back. They’d done things they probably shouldn’t have done at Lance’s favorite beach and they’d revisited the truck a fair amount of times, too. Keith intimately knew what it felt like to have his face pressed against Lance’s sweaty shoulder, Lance’s fingers having taken a field trip to where no man had gone before.

Basically, they’d become sex addicts and living in a house constantly full of people was not the best place for that to have happened.

Case in point. “HURRY! UP!” Marco yelled, banging on the door _again_ , the impatient asshole. Keith was starting to understand why Lance had complained about his family even while bringing up treasured memories of them.

Keith tried to push Lance off of him again, because seriously, his brother was _right outside the door_ , but Lance glared at him and took him in even further, which really shouldn’t have been as hot as it was, and—

“Fuck,” Keith hissed, and then he was spilling into Lance’s mouth and Lance was swallowing like it was no problem, standing up easily and shutting off the shower. He hopped out and started drying off and Keith was forced to follow on jelly legs, Lance just barely looking back at him to make sure he was wrapped up in a towel before throwing open the door and saying, “It’s all yours,” to his brother, who just glared at them both as he brushed past them. It was nice to finally feel a part of the family.

They’d been here for almost two weeks, now, but Keith felt surprisingly at home. It wasn’t the same as the castle-ship, wasn’t the same as having his own room and routine and knowing every nook and cranny from staying up so late every night, but it was… good. It was a house always full of people — people that for some reason seemed to love Keith more than they should’ve, given the time they’d known him. He was constantly being checked up on, constantly being touched. He was pulled into hugs before bed and berated if he didn’t eat enough at dinner. It was alarmingly warm and loving and happy and Keith, surprisingly, enjoyed it.

Maybe it was because of that that the universe decided to take it away from him. Away from _Lance_.

They were supposed to have at least another week. The castle was pretty much done being built, thanks to the secrets of Altean construction and probably some magic on Allura (and maybe Romelle?)’s part, but there were still all the little things that needed to be tested and fine-tuned. They’d been messaging everyone daily on their devices, partially as a way for Shiro to check up on them and make sure they were all still okay, and partially because they all missed each other, surprisingly enough.

So, sure. Keith had been letting himself get a little bit excited about going to the newly built castle. He’d been excited about seeing everyone again, excited to compare this new castle to the last one and learn all its secrets all over again. What he _hadn’t_  been excited for was watching Lance have to say goodbye to his family, and that was when they were supposed to have a whole day to do it, filled with food and hugs and stories and _time_.

As it was, they’d barely changed into pairs of Lance’s clothing after showering before their communication devices were emitting a series of harsh sounding beeps. They’d never done that before, only making a soft sound if a new message was incoming, and suddenly the beeping was replaced by Allura’s voice.

“ _Paladins_!” she said, and Keith and Lance had a moment to exchange a similarly horrified, knowing glance before she was speaking again. “ _The coalition has just informed us that Galra ships are headed towards Earth at this very moment. You all need to come back to the Garrison immediately. It’ll only be a matter of hours before they’re here — with any luck, we can fight them off and lead them away. The castle’s good enough to take flight; we can do the rest of the fine-tuning on our own_.”

“But—” Lance said, his voice weak and quiet. Keith heard similar protests from Hunk and Pidge, and Allura sighed sadly.

“ _I know_ ,” she said. “ _This situation is… less than ideal. I’m sorry to have to cut this time with your families short, but the universe needs us. It might_ always _need us_.”

It was like that triggered something in Lance. His entire expression changed, going from the broken hearted son to the red paladin, a defender of the universe with a job to do.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” he said, his voice belying no emotion. Despite being dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a graphic tee that said _the truth is out there_ , when he squared his shoulders he looked every part of the soldier that he was. For some reason, that broke Keith’s heart.

“Let’s go,” Lance said, and Keith followed as he turned towards the doorway, only to find Luis and Veronica already standing in it, looking crestfallen. At that, Lance’s hardened expression faltered.

“We heard weird beeping,” Veronica said softly, her eyes drifting over to the device still sitting on the desk.

“I’m sorry,” Lance said, and then Veronica was rushing forward, pulling Lance into a hug.

Across the hall, the bathroom door opened, revealing Marco with freshly brushed teeth and a damp, just-washed face. “Woah, what’s going on?” he said, eyeing the hug happening, Veronica now shaking with quiet sobs.

“Lance is leaving,” Luis said quietly, his face yet to have shown any emotion to this development, but Marco’s eyes widened and they flickered to Keith, looking at him with horror.

“You’re leaving?” he said incredulously.

“The Galra are coming,” Keith said as way of explanation. “We have to stop them.”

Luis and Marco were rushing in to hug Lance next, and as they did, Keith started shoving things into a bag. A bunch of Lance’s clothes. Some of the dumb nick knacks scattered around his room. Junk from Lance’s bedside drawer. Lube.

Minutes later, Lance was shoving his siblings out of the room, he and Keith needing to change into their paladin armor. They were only half dressed when the shouting downstairs started, meaning Lance’s mother had been informed.

They changed faster, zipping their undersuits up for each other and snapping their armor plates into place. They hadn’t been wearing their armor when they’d arrived, had kept it safely tucked away in the bags they’d brought, but now they jogged down the stairs fully decked out, the bag full of Lance’s stuff hanging from Keith’s shoulders.

They paused in the kitchen, partially because Lance still had goodbyes to say and partially because everyone was gaping at them, forced to acknowledge the fact that they were actually soldiers, actually going back out there to fight a war.

“Oh, _Mijo_ ,” Lance’s mom said sadly, and Lance stepped forward, letting her pull him into a tight hug. She started talking to him in Spanish, quick and low and intense. Lance responded just the same, until suddenly his mother said something that made him go bright red and say, “ _Mami_!” But his mom just pressed something into his hand, gave him an intense look, and shoved him away.

The next thing Keith knew, she was looking at him. “Oh, get over here,” she said, and Keith was pulled into a hug first by her, and then by the rest of Lance’s siblings. Lance went around for a second round of hugs, too, holding it together even as they started to cry.

There wasn’t any time to say goodbye to Lance’s extended family, and before they knew it, they were walking out the door.

“Wait,” Keith said at the last moment, and he dug his own communication device out of his bag, shoving it into Marco’s hand. “You guys can have this. It never needs to be charged and you should be able to communicate with us wherever we are. The messages might take a little longer to come through depending on how far away we are, though.”

Lance’s family was gaping. _Lance_  was gaping. It was clear he’d never thought to do the same thing.

“Are you sure?” Lance’s mother demanded, looking like Keith better be damn sure, now that she knew this was possible.

“I’m sure,” Keith promised. “Pidge can probably build me another. And you guys need it more than I do, anyway.”

“I can’t believe we finally have a cool alien phone,” Marco joked, and Lance scoffed from behind Keith.

“I’m telling you, Marc, it’s not that cool!”

“Says you, Mr. flying-robot-lion-guy! Let us normal people enjoy the little things!”

A car on the street honked, Garrison officials apparently having already been contacted, and Lance gave the car an anxious look before turning back to his family. “I’ll miss you,” he said, and without giving them a chance to respond, jogged towards the car.

“Thank you for having me,” Keith said, before following Lance and shutting the door behind him, their bag shoved on the floor beneath their feet.

“You two ready?” their driver asked.

“Yeah. Just — let me do one thing,” Lance said. He leaned over Keith, rolling down the window, and said, “Hey Marco! Look at this!”

Marco stopped wiping his eyes in order to look up at Lance, who was grinning. He stuck his bayard out the window, made it transform into a gun, and shot a few lasers into the sky just as they began to drive away.

“Holy _shit_!” echoed from behind them, and Lance laughed, his bayard changed back into its hip clip. He was still leaning across Keith, still kind of hanging out of the window, and Keith wrapped his arms around him, squeezing tight.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply, because he had a pretty good idea of how Lance was feeling. Lance slithered back into the car and slumped against Keith with a tired sigh.

“Me too,” he said. “But… We’ll see them again one day.”

Keith’s face warmed inexplicably, at that. _We’ll_  see them again. “Definitely,” he said.

“Hey, you mind flying this time? I’m kind of tired.”

“Sure thing,” Keith said, letting his fingers play through Lance’s hair. Lance shifted, trying to get more comfortable against him, which was hard to do when they were wearing all their armor.

“What’d your mom give you?” Keith found himself asking when curiosity got the best of him. Lance must have tucked the item away somewhere, but Keith could see the tips of his ears go pink at the question.

“None of your business, nosy-butt,” he said. “Although she did tell me to tell you how long I’ve liked you for.”

“Yeah?” Keith said curiously. “Is that, like, a Cuban tradition?”

Lance snorted, looking up at him with a grin and wet-yet-bright eyes. “You’re so cute,” he said. “And no.”

“Then why would she say that?” Keith asked, frowning now, and Lance sighed so heavily his body slid down against Keith’s.

“Because,” he huffed, his lip pouting out. It seemed even when he wasn’t actually with his mom he felt compelled to follow her directions. “I’ve liked you since our first year at the Garrison.”

Keith choked on his own spit, which was honestly a feat, if you asked him, but he finally managed to say, “ _What_?!”

“Yeah,” Lance sighed, his face a firm shade of red. “Make of that what you will.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No. Why do you think my entire family knew who you were already? I talked about you all the time.”

“Holy shit,” Keith said. And then he squinted, because a stupid yet insistent thought was coming to him, and, “Was that poem…?”

“ _Shut up_!” Lance roared, actually flipping over and getting to his knees in order to plant his hand over the lower half of Keith’s face. “We’re never talking about this again, you hear me?!” And Keith heard him, sure, but that didn’t stop his head from reeling. Lance had seriously liked him since they were, what, thirteen? Fourteen? That was insane!

And, God, Keith had thought _he’d_  been suffering, having to deal with his feelings all alone for those two years on the space-whale. Even with the distortion of time he was behind Lance on sheer amount of crushing-time.

Lance moved his hand away from Keith’s mouth warily, eyeing him carefully. Keith’s eyebrows came together. “You think I’m a tool?!”

“Bad Keith!” Lance reprimanded, shoving his hand back over Keith’s mouth again. “Purge that from your memory you worthless snoop!”

Keith was laughing, which was hard with a hand pressed over his mouth, but he managed it. And seriously, what had Lance _expected_  him to do in his childhood bedroom?

He pried Lance’s hand off his mouth. “Hey, if it wasn’t for my snooping, I wouldn’t have known there were CDs in your bedside table. Now we can play those on the castle!”

Lance’s eyes widened, his mouth dropping open in excitement as he looked down at the bag Keith had packed. “Oh, no way!” he said, and then his expression fell a little. “We’ll need a CD player…”

Keith frowned, realizing he hadn’t thought of that.

Minutes later, he and Lance were waving their thanks to the driver, Lance with an entire radio system he’d wrenched out of the car with the use of Keith’s knife tucked under his arm.

“I hope that guy doesn’t get fired,” Lance worried, before climbing into the jet with Keith, who settled into the pilot’s seat.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Keith said absently, before firing up the Garrison jet and taking to the skies. He knew their departure had been abrupt, and that really, right now they were just on their way to fight the Galra, but he couldn’t help feeling like they were going home.


	27. day twenty seven: moving in together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team has a dance party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrote this to and from my way to college orientation!!! got my priorities Sorted, as you can see,,,

“Welcome to the new castle!” Coran said grandly, spreading his arms wide. It was maybe a bit out of place, considering they’d all just parked their lions in their hangers and walked through the halls of the castle to end up in the control room, but Lance appreciated it all the same.

“It looks awesome, Coran!” Lance said excitedly, eyes taking in every aspect of the room. Same chairs! Same holograms! And Allura’s hand-thingies were there!

“It looks… exactly the same,” Hunk said, several of the paladins nodding in agreement.

“That’s where you’re wrong!” Coran said happily. We built everything an _inch_  to the left, just to mix things up. And the lights are all a little bit brighter — did you notice?”

“Um. Yeah,” Keith spoke up, noticing Coran’s anticipating tone. “Looks great.”

Coran smiled happily, crossing his arms and looking around the bridge with pride. “Oh!” he said suddenly, making them all jump. They were probably still a bit antsy from the battle, having done everything they could to successfully fight the Galra and lead them away. Once they’d gotten them a safe distance from Earth, they’d tested the new castle’s ability to wormhole — thankfully successfully. “This time around we’ve made the paladins’ quarters a bit bigger. Thought that’d be preferable, especially for those of us sharing a room,” he intoned, giving Lance and Keith a knowing look.

Lance’s eyes widened as he looked over at Keith, whose expression was somewhat similar. Sure, it made sense, and Lance would love to go to bed with Keith every night, he’d just never actually thought about it before. Never really imagined them sharing a room. He’d been a little busy, you know, with all the flying back to Earth and facing new challenges practically every other day.

“Um. Yeah,” Lance said now, glancing between Keith and Coran and ignoring everyone else. Someone was quietly snickering and Lance would put all his money on Pidge. “That sounds nice,” Lance continued.

“Perfect!” Coran said happily.

It was only a matter of minutes before the paladins were taken on a grand tour. They continued to make ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ noises despite walking through a castle that was vastly the same as before. The tour ended at the beginning of the residential area, where Coran then gestured flippantly and told them all to pick a room.

“I call the room farthest from Lance and Keith’s!” Pidge shouted, taking off down the hall.

“Ha ha, very funny Pidge!” Lance called after her. But then he and Keith chose a room a little ways away from everyone else, anyway. You know. Just in case.

And their rooms were definitely bigger, which was nice because that meant they came with a bigger bed. Lance excitedly ran into the bathroom, shouting about how much room their shower had. “Keith!” he added suddenly. “There’s a _bathtub too_!”

Mostly, living together wasn’t too big of a change. Not after all the changes they’d faced recently, anyway. Losing the castle, flying day and night, stopping to sleep on a million different planets, getting to _Earth_.

Leaving Earth.

Certainly, rooming with Keith wasn’t too big of a change. And it wasn’t a bad one, either.

“Where should we put this?” Keith said, pulling the geode Lance had bought at some cheap gift shop in fifth grade out of their bag.

“You brought my geode?” he said with a snort, cocking his head and finding himself unable to keep the fond smile off his face.

Keith shrugged. “I was panicking; I just grabbed whatever. Should I not have taken it?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Lance said, strolling forward and plucking the rock out of Keith’s hand. “It makes our room more homey.”

Keith smiled. “That’s what I was thinking.”

They ended up putting the geode on the dresser, which Keith unpacked a random assortment of Lance’s clothes into. Lance could admit, he was especially excited about having a few pairs of sweatpants out here with him now.

And, most surprising, Keith pulled out a picture frame of Lance and his family. Instantly, and possibly a bit belatedly, his eyes teared up. He pulled Keith into a tight hug, sniffling into his shoulder before letting him actually put the picture down next to the geode.

“I should send them a message,” Lance decided suddenly, looking at Keith with excitement bubbling up in his stomach. Keith was a genius, thinking to leave his comm device back with Lance’s family. Love rushed through Lance so hard he had to tamp it all down before he accidentally blurted it right then and there for seemingly no reason at all.

He whipped out his device, then, typing out a quick, _Whipped those Galra asses and saved the day once again. It’s whatever *shrug*,_  before sending it off. He then tossed the device onto the bed, reaching out for Keith’s face and cupping it impulsively.

“You’re so cute,” he said importantly, because Keith had been watching him type with his lip pouted just the tiniest bit out and sometimes Lance was so overwhelmed with all the things he felt he thought that he might explode if he didn’t express it all.

“Says you,” Keith scoffed, knocking his hands away, and _by God_ , was Keith flirting?!

“Come on,” Lance said, brushing past Keith to pull the stack of CDs he’d managed to grab out of their bag. “Pidge’s probably figured out how to set up the car radio by now.”

Keith followed Lance, bemused, all the way back to the control room, where Allura seemed to be showing Romelle the control panel.

“Hello ladies!” Lance called. “Pidge figure out the radio yet?”

“Yep!” called a voice that was neither Allura nor Romelle’s, and Pidge scooted out from under the panel, the parts of her hair that were long enough pulled back into a ponytail.

Lance cheered, and then he sprinted past Allura to do what she’d told him time and time again specifically _not_  to do and slapped his hand on the announcement button. “ _Everyone report to the control room immediately! An emergency dance party is under w—_ ”

Allura slapped his hand out of the way, but the damage was done. Barely a minute later the rest of the team was filtering into the control room, because come on, no one could actually resist an emergency dance party.

“I hear we’re dancing?” Hunk said, raising his eyebrows at Lance, who nodded before skipping past Keith and towards the radio Pidge had set up.

“It’s good to go?” he asked.

“All yours.”

Lance splayed his selection of CDs on the floor before him, scanning their handwritten titles and trying to recall what was on each of them. A blue one was titled, _The Absolute Best Tunez_. Another was named, _Music To Make You Gain Control_. With a snort, Lance ended up grabbing the one that said, _The Ultimate Bops_  and poked it into the disk slot.

The first chords of the first song began and Lance leapt to his feet, grinning. No one really wanted to dance, at first, given all his friends were huge lame-o’s and somehow still self conscious enough to not want to dance around each other, but Lance got his way. Lance _always_  got his way.

He belted out the lyrics, pulling his friends into stupid dances, and soon enough he had everyone singing along dramatically, following him as he skipped around the room, jumping on and off the chairs and stomping with the beat.

He was just about to go and get Kaltenecker, and maybe Cosmo too, because both of the space-animals had surely missed Lance and Keith enough during their separation on Earth and would enjoy a dance party as much as the rest of them, but that’s when one song faded to an end. And another, all-too-familiar one began.

A laugh escaped Lance — he hadn’t even realized this song was on the CD — and he turned towards Keith, grinning widely. Keith was already bright red, obviously associating certain memories with the words now playing over the speakers. Lance joined in.

“ _And fellas!_ ” he shouted, swinging his hips as he advanced on Keith. _“I hope you’re ready to rock!”_

“Stop,” Keith groaned.

Lance ignored him. “ _We went crazy cooped up all winter long, and school’s out so let’s get it on_ —”

Keith pressed his hand against Lance’s mouth, effectively shutting him up, though that didn’t stop him from singing a muffled version into Keith’s palm. And that didn’t stop the rest of the team (besides the aliens, who would know these classics soon enough, if Lance had any say in it) from singing along, all chorusing, “ _Summer niiights, everybody are you with me?!_ ”

By the time they got back to their bedroom, thoroughly happy and sated and danced out, Lance felt oddly… at home. It was funny, because he’d felt the exact same thing at his actual _house_. He’d stepped through that same old front door and walked through those same old halls and had felt so at _home_  finally being back with his family. And his heart had shattered into a million pieces when Allura had called, when their time together had been cut short.

He’d been so sure that he’d be feeling down about it forever, that he would spend his nights trying not to cry into his pillow, and now he felt strangely fine. Like, sure, he was still sad that he wasn’t going to get to see his family every day, but now he was with his _other_  family. And finally being back in the castle made him realize how much he’d been missing it, how much he’d been longing for a familiar place to lay his head each night, a familiar routine. Somehow, his out-of-the-ordinary life had become the ordinary, and he kind of really loved it that way.

“We have to take a bath together soon,” Lance said around a mouthful of toothpaste, nodding his head towards the tub.

“Ew, baths?”

“Shut up. I’m gonna rock your world with the most relaxing bubble bath you’ve ever experienced.”

Keith spat in the sink, raised his eyebrows at Lance as if to say, _Sure you will_ , and stepped back out into their bedroom. Lance joined him after washing his face, finding Cosmo already curled up at the foot of the bed, blinking at Lance innocently.

Keith, too, was laying in the bed, staring at Lance somewhat similarly.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lance said.

“No reason,” Keith said, before his lip twitched up into a smirk. “I might be naked under here, though.”

Lance glanced at Cosmo. “With Cosmo in the room?”

“I’ll make him leave,” Keith said simply. “I mean, if you join me.”

“Oh, duh,” Lance said, and he started stripping off his clothes, pointing a finger at Cosmo and saying, “Scram! For like, twenty minutes.”

And then he joined his boyfriend in their bed, unable to control his grin, solely because he couldn't stop thinking about how they were really sharing this bed, really sharing this room. God, if Keith knew what Lance was thinking he’d think he was such a sap. So Lance said nothing and kissed him instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello i remembered cosmo exists uwu


	28. day twenty eight: falling in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something's up with Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys!!! after a comment i got from NetflixandFandoms12 last chapter i’ve made lance a [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/jilliancares/playlist/3XSMrJoQLoroXjTGP6L813?si=88xZsnYLTeWLRD_d1zsfGw)!!! it’s too long to Actually be a CD but we can all pretend it’s what he put into the radio last chapter. it’s basically a collection of songs i think lance would love/dance to/sing to keith ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ i’m actually really proud of it alsdjlsdjf so maybe follow it and listen sometime!! i know i’m definitely gonna have Lance Feels whenever i listen to it now lmao. plus,,, even when this fic is finished you'll still have that, so that's something ;-;

Lance was acting weird.

Like, weirder than normal weird.

At first Keith had thought it was just being back on the castle. Or, not _back_ , really, considering it was an entirely new castle, but… well, you get what he means. Anyway, that was besides the point. Lance was acting out of the ordinary and Keith was determined to get to the bottom of it.

For example, Lance kept giving him these… _looks_. Sure, he’d looked at Keith before, plenty of times, really, but these were different. These were looks where he stared and stared and stared to the point where Keith had to snap in front of his face, wondering if he’d somehow fallen asleep with his eyes open. Except that that didn’t seem likely, considering the weirdly dopey look on his face, and the way he always jerked and blushed the second Keith’s fingers clicked before his nose, making him snap out of it.

But that wasn’t it. His weirdness was extending to all aspects of their life. Going to bed? Lance found it appropriate to hold him, like, _illegally_  nicely. So tender and soft, like if he wasn’t holding Keith just right they wouldn’t make it through the night. It was criminal. Keith became absolute putty in his arms, unable to stop from melting into him, from feeling like his entire body would implode because of how _much_  he felt about Lance, all somehow brought to the surface just by the way the guy was cuddling him.

And then there was the way he touched Keith. Now, they hadn’t been sexually active too long, but they had a kind of general way they went about it. Most times it was hurried and quick, sloppy kisses and muffled laughter and quiet moans and panted breaths. But lately, Lance was all about doing it _slow_. All about staring straight into Keith’s eyes as he sank into him, as he made him gasp, as he made his eyes flutter shut. And it wasn’t like Keith didn’t like it slow, but there was something about having Lance stare at him like he could see into his soul that was a bit intense. That made Keith feel more naked than he already was.

Basically, he felt like he had to get to the bottom of this. Had to figure out what Lance’s deal was, with all the looks and the cuddles and the _touching_.

“Lance,” he said, the next time he caught Lance staring at him like he’d just helped Lance’s grandmother cross the street or something. “What’s up with you?”

And of course, Keith had an idea in mind of what Lance’s response would be. Something like, _I have no idea what you’re talking about_ , or maybe, _What’s do you mean ‘what’s up with me?’ What’s up with **you**?_  Instead of anything along those lines, though, Lance pursed his lips, looked Keith up and down, and said, “Tell you what. You beat me in a sparring match and I’ll tell you.”

Keith blinked. “Wait, what?”

“You heard me,” Lance said, grinning now. He was already walking towards their closet, already changing into work out clothes. “If you fight me and win, I’ll tell you what’s on my mind.”

“But you know I’m gonna win,” Keith said, because _duh_. Lance may have had a sword, but he hadn’t been using it nearly as long as Keith. Especially not with the two years of extra training he’d gotten on that space whale.

Lance just shrugged cockily, letting his eyebrows climb up his forehead as he pulled his shirt over his head, grabbing an athletic one instead. “Guess we’ll just have to see.”

And so, with a challenge officially declared and accepted, they were grabbing their bayards and heading to the new and improved training room. It was exactly the same as the old one, but Coran insisted on them calling it ‘new and improved’.

“Ready?” Lance said, when he held up his bayard and made it transform into his sword.

“Are _you_?” Keith returned, pulling out his Blade instead.

“You know it, Mullet-man,” Lance said dramatically. “Prepare to go down.”

And the fight between them broke out in earnest. There was no slow circling of each other, no swinging their swords or grinning or taunting — just a sudden slash through the air and a resounding clash as their blades connected and skidded off one another. Keith fell into battle mode quickly, his weight on his toes, his knees bent. He jumped out of the way quickly, followed up on attacks resolutely, and pressed Lance with absolutely no mercy.

Lance fought back just as hard, to be fair. And he played _dirty_ , too. Kicking at Keith’s feet when he swung at his head, smacking at his butt at a free opportunity just to rile him up. It ended with Keith’s sword at Lance’s throat, obviously, but Lance just grinned at him and said, “Best two out of three?”

 

Keith relented. He’d let Lance get away with anything, after all — he couldn't help it. Lance made him as weak as he did strong.

Plus, there was just something about sparring with the person who knew you best. Something about trying to trick someone who knew all your tricks, something about being against someone who was always on your side. Something about fighting the person you were in love with.

Keith had to resist a flinch as the thought washed over him, but it wasn’t wrong. He’d known it for a while now, had lived with the knowledge tucked insistently at the back of his mind. It was there in his every thought, every action. Made itself known every time he kissed Lance, every time he woke up with Lance drooling on his shoulder and somehow didn’t fling him off the bed in disgust but instead rolled his eyes and felt _fond_ , of all things.

He’d known it, and felt it, and wanted to _express_  it, but he’d kept the knowledge to himself. After all, Lance hadn’t mentioned it once since that night in his bed. Keith was convinced he didn’t even remember saying it, or if he did, regretted saying it so soon. So Keith stamped down the urge to blurt how he was feeling every time Lance had a sudden thought he absolutely had to share even with a mouth full of toothpaste. He’d fought it back when Lance had filled up the bathtub, waggling his eyebrows at Keith insistently and somehow making him enjoy something he’d always considered kind of gross. Pushed and shoved and _ignored_  it when Lance pulled him into his arms and pressed kisses all over his face, making Keith laugh and try to bat him away even as he pulled him in closer.

Yeah, Keith was in deep.

And also entirely too distracted.

Lance let out a loud, echoing laugh as he flicked his wrist and managed to disarm Keith, his sword skidding across the metal floor. The tip of Lance’s sword then flung up, light against the skin of Keith’s neck, and he grinned so big Keith had half a mind to knock his sword aside and kiss him instead.

“One to one,” Lance said, wetting his lips as he cocked his hip out. “Even-steven. You know, I won’t blame you if you just give up now.”

“Like hell,” Keith scoffed, and then he had his bayard activated and was knocking Lance’s aside. He fought harder than before, pushing Lance back and back, making him move faster and faster, until Lance was tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground, flinging his bayard aside in order to catch himself before he hit his head on the ground instead.

Keith whooped triumphantly as he plopped himself down in Lance’s lap, blade bared against his throat and Lance’s head tipped back to avoid it. They were both panting, both flushed and sweaty, and Keith had the added bonus of victory accompanying the adrenaline in his veins.

“I win,” he announced, smile so big it was hurting his cheeks. “Now you have to tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay,” Lance said simply, avoiding the entire exchange Keith had been expecting, which included a series of ‘ _I demand a rematch!’_  and ‘ _My lips are sealed._ ’ While Keith was still stewing in the astonishment of Lance ever letting anything happen easily, Lance did him a double whammy. “I’m in love with you.”

Keith blinked. And then his bayard changed back into its hip-clip, probably out of sheer surprise. Lance picked his head up a bit, a sword no longer pressed to his throat, and looked at Keith expectantly.

“I know,” Keith said on accident, instead of ‘ _I love you too_ ’ like an actual normal person would’ve said.

“Holy shit,” Lance said, sitting up lighting quick. “Was that a Star Wars reference?”

“What?” Keith said, confused now.

Lance’s eyebrows furrowed. “Okay, so it _wasn’t_  a Star Wars reference.”

Keith just shook his head. “You told me before,” he explained. “Um, when you were falling asleep?”

Lance’s eyes widened, his face flushing pink, proving that Keith had been right. He really had forgotten saying that. He opened his mouth and closed it again, apparently unsure what to say, so Keith spoke again. “I love you too, by the way.”

Lance just stared at him for a moment, his brain seeming to process what Keith had just said, and—

“ _Oh_!” he exclaimed, body kind of jolting into an upright position, and then he was smiling and smiling and smiling, before saying, “Holy shit, Keith!”

“What? You said it first!”

“I know!” Lance said, and then he was shoving Keith to the floor, reversing their positions, and Keith almost activated his bayard again out of pure reflex before Lance’s lips were on his and he was kissing him quickly, desperately, and then slower, because they had absolutely all the time in the world.

Lance laughed against his lips before tucking his face into the crook of Keith’s neck and shoulder, and Keith found himself laughing too, accidentally giggling at the ceiling. He let his arms wrap around Lance’s body, let his fingers tangle into his hair, as he held him close and basked in the knowledge that they were really, truly in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyo ummm i’ve never seen star wars so hopefully my googling made that reference right nice lmao


	29. day twenty nine: doing chores around the house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins are bad at doing chores.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song in this chapter's on the playlist i created too! don't forget to check it out! <3
> 
>  
> 
> [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/jilliancares/playlist/3XSMrJoQLoroXjTGP6L813?si=88xZsnYLTeWLRD_d1zsfGw)

" _OOOOOHHH_ … ninety-nine bottles of nunvill on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of nunvill! Take one down, pass it around—”

“Can you _please_  shut up?” Pidge complained from across the room, and Lance looked her square in the eye as he finished the verse.

“Ninety-nine bottles of nunvill on the wall!”

“I’m going to kill myself,” Pidge announced.

“You’ll only encourage him,” Keith said from the cryopod beside Lance’s. They were all spending the day doing chores, unfortunately enough. With the castle still taking it easy and not doing any jumps until it was for sure in tip-top shape, Coran had decided it would be best for everyone to get to work by cleaning it.

“ _But… it’s not dirty yet,_ ” Lance had protested. “ _It’s still brand new_.”

“ _Exactly_!” Coran had said. “ _So we’ll clean it before it can get dirty. It’s a preventative measure_!”

“ _Well in that case, I don’t know if I’ll have time to help. I was planning on taking a shower soon to prevent getting dirty for the rest of the day_.”

“ _An excellent plan, number four, but unfortunately timed. We really need all hands on deck with this one_."

And so everyone (or at least, the paladins and Shiro) was currently in the med bay, scrubbing already perfectly clean pods. Lance had figured the best way to pass the time would be to sing loudly and obnoxiously.

He’d just opened his mouth for another verse of the song — he still had ninety-eight bottles to go, after all — when Shiro spoke up instead. “I’m sure we could think of something to do to help pass the time.”

“Or we could just stop cleaning _already clean_  things,” Keith pointed out grumpily. Lance didn’t blame him for his bad mood, though he certainly wouldn’t mind cheering him up. Hopefully they would finish cleaning sooner rather than later so they could kick back and relax.

“Let’s play a game,” Hunk suggested, having just scrubbed a small area of one crypod, deeming it clean, before moving onto another. “Something like that picnic game we used to play.”

“I don’t wanna play the picnic game,” Pidge grumbled, ever the sore loser.

“Let’s play ‘what are the odds’,” Lance suggested, grinning widely. He stopped cleaning his pod to instead explain the rules when a chorus of ‘what’s that?’ inevitably followed. It was basically a game of dare, except chance was involved so there was always a possibility you wouldn’t have to actually do whatever you’d been dared to. Lance had experienced many a good (and bad) party playing this game and his excitement was now spiked, knowing doing their chores wouldn’t be quite as boring if they were playing it.

“Okay, so…” Hunk said, clarifying the rules. “I would be like, Lance, what are the odds you’ll do ten jumping jacks?”

“Right,” Lance said. “And someone counts us down, and on three we both say a random number one through five. If it’s the same number, I have to do it.”

 

“Okay,” Hunk said, nodding now. Everyone seemed to understand the rules, but if they didn’t, they could easily go and google it right then, _cough_.

“Who wants to start?” Lance asked. Everyone stared at him blankly, which was answer enough, and also totally classic them. “Fine, I’ll do it. _Allura_.”

“Oh God,” Allura said, wringing her sponge anxiously in her hands. Lance grinned lecherously.

“What are the odds you’d…” Lance looked around the room for inspiration, sucking on his cheek, and then he grinned. “Tell Coran we’re done with our chores?”

Everyone ‘ooh’d and whooped, and Allura rolled her eyes, obviously not wanting to lie to her mentor any more than the rest of them. Shiro counted them down and, on the count of three, they both shouted a number.

“Three!”

“Five!”

“ _Dammit_ ,” Lance said, accompanied by a chorus of groans, and the game moved swiftly on. It started pretty tame, as these games always did. Hunk got Pidge to use her bayard as a grappling hook on the ceiling, Pidge had Shiro attempting to break dance in the middle of their circle, and Shiro made Keith kiss Allura on the cheek, which everyone was thoroughly delighted and amused by, save for Keith.

But then, as all simple and innocent games were destined to, ‘what are the odds’ turned risqué.

Allura got Lance to kiss Keith’s ear — “Why thank you Allura, how did you know I love macking on my boyfriend?” — which ended with Keith red-faced and glaring at Allura, though Lance pecked him on the cheek immediately afterwards in an attempt to soothe him.

Lance sadly failed to make Pidge run to the kitchen and fill her shirt with food goo, and in Pidge’s relief, she turned her revenge right back on him. “What are the odds you kiss Hunk?”

Laughter broke out immediately and Lance rolled his eyes, letting Allura count them down. And then, on three:

“Two!”

“Two!”

“Oh God,” Lance said, glancing across the circle to where Hunk had already hidden his face behind his hands.

Lance’s traitorous friends started chanting, “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” and even stupid Keith joined in.

“I still love you,” Lance shouted over his chanting, before striding across the circle, clapping his hands on Hunk’s cheeks, and planting a wet one right on his mouth.

“Urgh,” Hunk said afterwards. “Thanks buddy.”

“Anything for you, Hunky-Wunky.”

However, it wasn’t until Allura had climbed a cryopod and Hunk had shown them all his secret tattoo (well, secret to everyone except Lance, and not so secret anymore) that things really started to get serious.

“Keith,” Allura said, making Keith’s face twitch barely-visibly. Lance could tell he hated being the one to have to do things, even if he was still having a fun time.

“Allura,” Keith returned.

“What are the odds you give Lance a lap dance?”

“I hate you,” Keith groaned immediately, smothered by the sounds of everyone else laughing. He crossed his arms tightly, glaring at Allura as Hunk counted them down. He glared even harder when they both said the same number.

Pidge retrieved a chair for Lance out of nowhere, which she shoved him down onto, and Lance patted his lap jokingly as Keith stood stiffly in front of him.

“There isn’t even any music,” he complained.

“Oh!” Pidge said, ever the helpful tech genius, and pulled out her communication device. Apparently she’d figured out a way to download the songs from Lance’s CDs onto it. She scrolled through the songs quickly, clicking one much too confidently, and grinned as the music began.

Keith, his face the color of his jacket, was pouting. “I don’t even know what to do,” he grumbled.

“Just walk up slow,” Lance instructed. “And like, shake your hips as you do. And when you get close, kind of like, grind your hips in the air at me? And straddle me?”

Keith only grew more flushed the more Lance spoke. “I fucking hate you, Allura,” he said, ignoring everyone’s laughter. Lance just winked at him, jerking his head for Keith to come closer. The sooner he did it, the sooner it’d be over for him.

Keith tilted his head back, groaning low in his throat, and Lance started singing along to the song. “ _I never knew she could dance like this, she makes a man wanna speak Spanish—_ ”

“Lance—”

_“Como se llama—”_

_“SI!”_  everyone else shouted.

_“Bonita!”_

_“SI!”_

_“Mi casa, su—”_

_“SHAKIRA, SHAKIRA!”_

Keith gave in. He glared at Lance as he moved towards him, which Lance sadly found hot, and he strutted towards him slowly as he moved his hips back and forth. He wasn’t at all in rhythm with the song, but it didn’t matter. Their friends were whooping and cheering as Keith closed in on Lance, planting a foot on one side of the chair and leaning in close, grinding his hips in the air towards Lance’s chest.

Lance laughed, reaching out towards him, but Keith smacked his hands away, earning him another chorus of cheers. He pulled back only to spin around, using those crazy leg muscles of his to practically sit in the air above Lance’s lap, moving his hips and tossing his head back, baring his throat towards the ceiling. This time he did let Lance touch him, let Lance hold onto his sides as he moved over him, and Lance had to force himself to swallow. He would _definitely_  be asking Keith for an encore later. In private.

It was over much too soon, though Keith actually seemed satisfied with his performance, and he accepted the back slap Pidge proudly gave him.

Only a little while later, Lance had to share an embarrassing story.

“Oh! I’ve got one,” he said after not too much thought, casting a cautious glance at Keith, who was as of yet still unsuspecting. “Something really embarrassing that happened was when we were on this one planet, and Keith and I decided to go shopping…”

Keith looked at him sharply, then, his eyes wide but still disbelieving. Snatches of their conversation from that day played back in Lance’s mind. _Don’t tell this story in a couple months as a funny anecdote. We tell **no one. Ever.**_

“And we walked into this random store, right? Totally innocently.”

“I’ll kill you, Lance,” Keith threatened, and that’s when Lance started backing away, having to run around the room as he was chased by Keith as he told the story.

In the end, they didn’t get very much cleaning done, too caught up in the fun they were having, but it didn’t matter. Despite not getting to more than half the pods, when Coran came to check on them, he congratulated them all on doing such a good job. That only had Keith grumbling more about it, though, because, _That’s what happens when you clean **already clean** things!_

But Lance was just happy for the distraction it caused, considering it made Keith forget about giving Lance the silent treatment for telling all their friends the story of their accidental sex store extravaganza. And he especially wanted him in a good mood for later that night, after he asked Pidge how to download music onto his own communication device.

Needless to say, it was a pretty eventful day, for one that was supposed to be so uneventful.


	30. day thirty: pillow talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can’t believe this is the last chapter… please read it and enjoy!! more notes at the end!!

Keith was still panting, feeling kind of dizzy despite laying down as Lance reached over him, snatching some tissues off their bedside table and using them to clean up the mess on Keith’s stomach.

“Thanks,” Keith managed to mumble, his eyes having slipped closed, and Lance planted a hand on his chest as he leaned as far forward as he could before attempting to throw the tissues into the trash can, only to miss by a mile.

“Damn,” he said.

“You’re picking that up,” said Keith.

“It’s your jizz.”

“It’s _your_  fault.”

Lance snorted at that, snuggling up next to Keith’s side and pulling the blankets up. Keith turned to face Lance, slinging a leg over his hip and tangling their bodies together. Lance’s arm was behind his back, helping to hold him close as Keith cushioned his head on Lance’s naked chest, hearing his heartbeat under his ear.

These moments were the best.

Keith let his fingers trail over Lance’s chest as Lance turned his face towards Keith’s, his nose brushing into his hair and his lips pressing against his forehead.

“I love you,” Lance said into the quiet, and Keith’s mouth morphed into a smile without his permission as he felt the words vibrate under his ear. He tucked his smile into Lance’s chest, his fingers still running over his skin.

Ever since they’d admitted to each other that they loved one another, it was something they said often. Lance was especially good at doing it, though Keith sometimes still felt like he had to build up to it, had to make some grand gesture just because of what he was saying. Lance, on the other hand, tended to blurt it whenever Keith made him laugh, whenever Keith slipped into the shower with him, whenever he pulled Keith into his arms at night.

“Oh yeah?” Keith said now, teasing. “How come?”

Lance dislodged Keith in order to roll on top of him, pinning his arms lightly above his head. “You reeeally wanna know?” he said lowly, his face dipping close to Keith’s, making him laugh.

“I mean, if you have the time.”

Lance hummed before leaning down and pressing a kiss to the tip of Keith’s nose. “I love your nose,” he said finally, and continued before Keith could laugh. “And your eyes. And I love your Galra ears when they pop out.”

Keith had gotten pretty good at controlling that aspect of himself, actually, and he closed his eyes and urged them into existence at Lance’s words, smiling when Lance huffed out a laugh and reached up to grab them, his ears now fuzzy and soft. “I love your laugh,” Lance continued. “I love how you lead the team. I love your—” Lance’s hand slid down Keith’s body, over his shoulder and down his chest, past his stomach, and Keith gasped. “Personality.”

“Subtle.”

“I just love you, Keith,” Lance said finally, dropping a kiss to Keith’s lips and collapsing bodily on top of him, making the breath whoosh out of his lungs. Lance was heavy, but in a good way. Keith wrapped his arms around him and held him there, liking the feeling of his weight pressing him down into the mattress.

“I love you too,” Keith said, his fingers digging into Lance’s bare, warm skin, and Lance smiled softly down at him. And then he raised his eyebrows.

“You sure?” he joked. “‘Cause from those drills you put us through today—”

“We have to keep training!”

“No, no, I heard you the first time, babe. But like, _that hard_?”

“The Galra aren’t gonna take it easy on us just because we’ve been out of commission for a while.”

“Okay, but like, you could at least take it easy on _me_. Since you claim to love me, and all.”

“It’s because I love you that I’m pushing you so hard. So you don’t die in battle.”

Lance pursed his lips. “But… You pushed _all_  of us hard. Oh my God, Keith, are you cheating on me? With the entire team?!”

Keith growled, using his grip on Lance’s body to flip them over and pin Lance to the mattress instead. Lance giggled, his eyes lighting up as he wrapped his arms behind Keith’s neck and hummed, delighted. “Mmm, my big, strong, angry boyfriend.”

Keith ignored him, running his lips down Lance’s neck. His teeth were sharper, partially because he’d willed them to be and partially because having any part of his Galra appearance present made the rest of it want to come along, but he used it against Lance now. He dragged the sharp edges of his teeth against the delicate skin of his neck, pausing towards the bottom to dig them in just the tiniest bit, to let him really feel how sharp they were. Lance shivered underneath him, a hand sliding up and tightening in his hair.

“You better stop,” Lance said gruffly, despite the fact that he was arching his neck even more. “‘Cause I really don’t think I’m up for a round three.”

Keith huffed against his neck. “Suit yourself.” He collapsed back against him, folding his arms under his chin and resting on Lance’s chest, just staring up at him.

And Lance was looking at him with that insanely gooey look that had scared Keith, at first. That look so _full_  of love it made something deep inside of Keith ache.

“Can I tell you something kind of crazy?” Lance said suddenly, before pulling his lip into his mouth with his teeth.

“You tell me crazy things all the time,” Keith pointed out. Lance, restless, shifted a bit, folding his arms behind his head and propping himself up better to see Keith.

“I’m serious.”

“So am I,” Keith smirked. “But go ahead. I like everything you tell me.”

Lance’s face inexplicably grew pink, and he gaped at Keith. “Okay, _I’m_  the flirty one in this relationship, so knock that shit off right now.”

Keith laughed, but he just continued to stare up at Lance expectantly, waiting.

“So,” Lance said suddenly, on a big rush of breath that made Keith’s body raise up and down, the upper half of him still laying on Lance’s chest. “It’s — it’s crazy because we’ve only been dating for so long, you know? But this is space, and this is the war, and… and I don’t see myself ever feeling the way I do about you towards anyone else. And like, everything we do is so dangerous, right? I just. I know you’re it for me.”

Keith’s eyes had widened. He understood what Lance was saying — felt the same, really — but the way Lance was saying it… Well, it almost sounded like he was proposing.

“Anyway, um. I completely understand if you’re like, ‘what the hell? No way dude!’ ‘cause I know how crazy this is. But I’m totally head over heels in love with you and that feeling is just growing and growing every single day. And then my mom was talking to me that last day on Earth, and it was fast and sudden but also, I don’t know, _right_? Like, everything your mom says to you is right, you know?” Lance was staring at Keith with wide, pleading eyes, his speech having gotten faster and faster with the more he’d said. His fingers were tapping against his arms, still stretched out behind his head. Keith was still staring at Lance in shock, knowing he’d be gaping if all his weight weren’t resting on his chin, pressed into his arms folded over Lance’s body.

“Right,” he finally said, his voice soft, anticipatory.

“Right,” Lance agreed again. “So, anyway. You know. My mom gave me her wedding ring? And I want you to have it? And marry me? Not now, necessarily, but some day? Or—”

“Lance,” Keith interrupted, his heart pounding ferociously in his chest as he finally pushed himself off of Lance and crawled up his body, hovering over his face. “Yes. Yes, I’ll — I’ll marry you. Of course.”

Lance made a weird sound in the back of his throat. “You’re sure? I don’t wanna pressure you or anything—”

“I’m sure, Lance,” Keith said, grinning now, and Lance let out an ecstatic little giggle under him, and Keith leaned down for a kiss, but then Lance was shoving him off and sliding out of the bed, skipping across the room, buck-naked.

“The ring!” he shouted. “I gotta give you the ring!”

Lance wrenched open the closet and shoved a bunch of their clothes aside, reaching for a bag in the back before digging around in it. He pulled out a small, shiny object — the ring — and held it triumphantly in the air before striding back towards Keith, grinning.

“I think it’ll fit you,” Lance was saying. “I mean, you’ve got such dainty, girly hands; it’s gotta.”

“I’m sorry, what did you just say about my hands?”

“Don’t feel bad, babe,” Lance said, crawling over him and plopping down in his lap. “I love your dainty little girl hands. Gimme.”

Without waiting for Keith to hand him his ( _dainty little?_ ) hand, who was still kind of reeling from the backhanded compliment, Lance grabbed his left hand and slid the ring onto his ring finger. It really did fit, surprisingly, and Lance looked up at him with the widest grin imaginable. He giggled.

“We’re engaged,” Lance announced, his eyes sparkling with excitement. Keith couldn’t help the giddy feeling in his chest either, nor the matching expression on his face.

“You’re my fiancé,” he answered.

Finally, Lance grabbed his face and kissed him, and Keith dragged him back down against the bed, the both of them getting lost in each other’s lips and bodies for a little while. Lance’s fingers kept gliding over Keith’s hand, touching the band and playing with the ring.

“I can’t believe you weren’t weirded out by this,” Lance said after a while, his lips red and his body _incredibly_  sated. Not up for round three, his ass. “Me proposing to you,” he clarified.

Keith shrugged. “I mean, I knew we were going to be together for a while. I saw visions of us when I was on that space-whale.”

For a moment — silence. And then: “ _What_?”

Keith glanced over at Lance, who was staring at him incredulously. “What?” Keith returned.

“I’m just — you _knew_  that we were going to end up together and didn’t make a move sooner?!”

Keith could feel his face flushing. He hadn’t believed the visions were totally accurate, at first, and after he and Lance had actually started dating, he just hadn’t considered them to be much of a big deal. At that point, it’d already made sense that he and Lance would still be together some amount of years down the road.

“Well I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to come true, you know?” Keith said. Lance’s answering look seemed to say that _no_ , he did _not_ know.

“Any other major future things you want to inform me about?” Lance demanded, propping himself up to look down at Keith expectantly.

Keith thought about the visions. About Lance’s sexy longer hair. About how they were going to be together for years, and get married, and keep loving each other for as long as it was physically possible. He thought about how fiercely he loved Lance, and how many great things were coming up for them, and how they were going to get to experience every little bit of it together. “No,” he said firmly, decisively. What little he did know was better left as a surprise.

“You liar,” Lance muttered, but it was lighthearted and he rolled back into Keith’s body anyway, melting happily against him. “Guess I’ll just have to wait and see it myself.”

“Guess you will,” Keith answered, tucking his smile into Lance’s hair. It seemed the future couldn’t quite come fast enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it doesn’t feel real that this is ending! i can’t believe i’ve been writing for 30 days straight now, but here we are… 
> 
> thank you all so SO much for the support you’ve given me!!! so many of you have commented about how nice it was to have a new chapter every morning/night, but getting to see your wonderful comments every day was just as amazing for me :’) i’m so happy you guys have stuck with me through this story and for those of you getting to read it all at once, i really hope you enjoyed!!! 
> 
> i set out to write something quick and fun with those 30 day prompts and accidentally wrote my longest klance fic so far, go figure ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ if you want more of my writing, i have TONS of more fics that you can check out here on ao3, and i’m currently writing a chaptered fic called ‘a new wish’ if you want to check that out (highschool au w/ trans!keith)!!! 
> 
> finally, if you wanna hmu on twitter (@jacecares) or tumblr (@jilliancares) i’d love to chat!!! thank you so so much for reading/kudosing/commenting/lurking — i hope you’ve had as much fun reading it as i have writing it!!!


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